Is My Pensées a First Edition?

The points of issue

• "Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion, et sur quelques autres sujets, qui ont esté trouvées après sa mort parmy ses papiers." Paris, Guillaume Desprez, 1670; in-12, roughly 159 x 97 mm, collating
• ff., 365 pp.,
• The decisive point is in the privilege: it is dated 7 January 1667, and on the verso of the thirty-ninth preliminary leaf the achevé d'imprimer reads "Achevé d'imprimer pour la première fois le 2 Janvier 1670" — the phrase "pour la première fois" is what separates the January first edition from the March second edition of the same year and the same publisher
• The errata are printed on the verso of the privilege
• Guillaume Desprez's monogram or cipher appears on the title page, with engraved initials and tailpieces; a copper-engraved vignette at the head of the text shows the chapel of the Collège des Quatre-Nations under construction with the motto "Pendent opera interrupta" taken from the Aeneid
• That vignette is also the discriminator against the Lyon counterfeits, which lack it

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The census claim needs a material correction on precedence. The Pensées were first printed in the summer of 1669 with a title page bearing that date, lacking the ecclesiastical approbation and the final table of contents, and were distributed to only a handful of readers — chiefly the bishops whose approval was being sought. That 1669 pre-original is the true first printing, but only TWO copies survive, both institutional and both unobtainable: the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Rés. D 21374, state A) and the Médiathèque of Troyes agglomeration (Des Guerrois 1874, state B, a more advanced state of revision carrying twelve correction cartons against ten in the BnF copy). The 1670 Paris edition is state C, differing from those by the printed date on the title page and by the presence of the cartons required by ecclesiastical censorship. The January 1670 Port-Royal edition is therefore the first PUBLISHED edition and the first obtainable in commerce, and it is what "first edition of the Pensées" means in practice. Pascal wrote in French and published in Paris; English translations follow decades later and are separate works, not issues. Les Provinciales is an earlier and separately collected Pascal high spot: the eighteen letters appeared individually and anonymously between January 1656 and May 1657, and the first collected edition is "Les Provinciales, ou les lettres escrites par Louis de Montalte à un provincial de ses amis, et aux RR. PP. Jésuites", 1657, under the false imprint "Cologne, Pierre de la Vallée" — a fictitious address covering Daniel Elzevier of Amsterdam; the pseudonym Louis de Montalte is Pascal's. Sources differ on the format of the 1657 collection (in-12 and in-4 are both described), so the format should not be relied on as a point.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club question arises for a 1670 book, but the reprint trap here is unusually sharp because the impostor carries the same year and the same publisher. A SECOND edition appeared in March 1670 from Guillaume Desprez: some copies are styled "Seconde édition" on the title and others carry no such statement at all, the unmarked ones probably preceding the marked, so the absence of a "seconde édition" line does NOT establish a first. Identify the March issue by collation and by the achevé: it has 40 preliminary leaves and 358 pages with famously irregular pagination (1-312, 307-330, 312-334), caused by the late insertion of a gathering for chapter XXXI that had been omitted, and it carries corrections and punctuation revisions plus the suppression of a passage on justice made at Arnauld's request. Typographic tells reported in the March issue include p. 9 reading "c'est ce que je doit", p. 89 lacking "du", and the signature on p. 305 marked "Dd" instead of "Cc". Against this, the January first edition collates (41) ff., 365 pp., (10) ff. and its privilege verso reads "pour la première fois". Later Port-Royal editions run to 1678, and Lyon counterfeits are identified by the absence of the Collège des Quatre-Nations vignette.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Pensées a first edition?

A first edition of Pensées by Blaise Pascal (Guillaume Desprez, Paris) is identified by: Pascal sur la religion, et sur quelques autres sujets, qui ont esté trouvées après sa mort parmy ses papiers." Paris, Guillaume Desprez, 1670; in-12, roughly 159 x 97 mm, collating (41) ff., 365 pp., (10) ff.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The census claim needs a material correction on precedence.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club question arises for a 1670 book, but the reprint trap here is unusually sharp because the impostor carries the same year and the same publisher. A SECOND edition appeared in March 1670 from Guillaume Desprez: some copies are styled "Seconde édition" on the title and others carry no such statement at all, the unmarked ones probably preceding the marked, so the absence of a "seconde édition" line does NOT establish a first. Identify the March issue by collation and by the achevé: it h

I have a first edition of Pensées — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.