# Is "Discours de la méthode" by René Descartes a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Discours de la méthode by René Descartes (Jan, 1637) is identified by: Leiden [Leyde]: Jan (Ian) Maire, 1637, small quarto (c.196 x 138 mm) — the census claim is confirmed. The French Leiden 1637 is the true first and precedes everything.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Leiden [Leyde]: Jan (Ian) Maire, 1637, small quarto (c.196 x 138 mm) — the census claim is confirmed
- Published ANONYMOUSLY: Descartes's name appears nowhere in the book, and that anonymity is itself a first-edition point
- Full title: 'Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences
- Plus la dioptrique
- Les meteores
- Et la geometrie
- Publisher imprint reads Jan

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | René Descartes |
| Publisher | Jan |
| Year | 1637 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Leiden [Leyde]: Jan (Ian) Maire, 1637, small quarto (c.196 x 138 mm) — the census claim is confirmed |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Leiden [Leyde]: Jan (Ian) Maire, 1637, small quarto (c.196 x 138 mm) — the census claim is confirmed. Published ANONYMOUSLY: Descartes's name appears nowhere in the book, and that anonymity is itself a first-edition point. Full title: 'Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences. Plus la dioptrique. Les meteores. Et la geometrie. Qui sont des essais de cete methode.' Title page bears Maire's woodcut device; woodcut initials and woodcut diagrams throughout. The colophon reads 'Acheué d'imprimer le 8. jour de iuin 1637'. Collation/pagination: [2], 3-78 (the Discours itself), then a divisional title, then 1-413 continuous for the three essays (La Dioptrique, Les Météores, La Géométrie), then [35] pages of index and privilege. The three essays are integral to the 1637 book: a volume containing the Discours alone is not the first edition. Standard references: Guibert, Discours 1; Tchemerzine II.776; Norman 621; PMM 129; Horblit 24; Dibner 81. HONEST LIMIT: beyond the imprint, anonymity, collation and colophon, no first-issue states, cancels or variant settings of the 1637 were confirmed in the sources consulted; Guibert's bibliography is the authority for any such claim, and none should be asserted without it.

## Is this the true first?
The French Leiden 1637 is the true first and precedes everything. The first Latin is separately collected: 'Renati Des Cartes Specimina philosophiae: seu Dissertatio de methodo…', Amsterdam: Louis Elzevir, 1644, translated by Étienne de Courcelles and revised by Descartes himself — notable as the first appearance of 'cogito ergo sum' in Latin (the French of 1637 reads 'je pense, donc je suis'). CENSUS NOTE CORRECTED: the claim that there was 'no English edition until much later' is wrong. The first English edition appeared within Descartes's own century — 'A Discourse of a Method for the Well Guiding of Reason, and the Discovery of Truth in the Sciences', London: printed by Thomas Newcombe, 1649. The 1637 French, the 1644 Latin and the 1649 English are all separately collected, with the 1637 the unambiguous first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club era applies to the 17th-century printings, and no book-club tells are documented. What actually turns up is 19th- and 20th-century French school and scholarly editions (Adam & Tannery among them) and English translations (Veitch; Haldane & Ross), plus Everyman, Penguin and Great Books series volumes — first thus at best, never the first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Discours de la méthode* by René Descartes a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/discours-de-la-m-thode
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.