Traité de la connoissance des animaux, où tout ce qui a esté dict Pour & Contre le raisonnement des Bestes, est examiné.

One volume in-4 (24,5x18cm), contemporary binding, red morocco, boards entirely decorated with a triple gilt decoration including a roulette on the border and a double four-lobed frame with a large decoration of sprays executed with small filigree irons, flames and fleur-de-lys gilt in the corners, central gilt coat of arms painted in green, spine with 5 nerves decorated with filigree irons, edges gilt. (Lining and endpapers renewed, small discoloration at head of spine).

[viii] pp. 390. A fine copy.

Very beautiful binding strictly contemporary to the edition, attributable to the "Rocolet" workshop or to the Badier workshop, and executed for the author Marin Cureau de La Chambre on a present copy to an unidentified recipient.

First edition of this work dedicated to the chancellor Séguier, protector of Cureau de La Chambre. It is one of the major pieces in the debate on the "soul of animals", which began in the second half of the 17th century and continued throughout the 18th century. In his treatise, Cureau de La Chambre gives animals the faculty of reason that Descartes had denied them, without making them the equals of man, since the two reasons - human and animal - are not similar.

Martin Cureau de La Chambre (1594-1669) was the personal physician of Chancellor Séguier from 1634 onwards, and remained so until his death, living for 35 years in his patron's house. His qualities as a physician as well as a philosopher opened the doors of the salons and the court, and allowed him to become the King's ordinary physician in 1650, before being one of the first members of the very young Academy of Sciences in 1666. A prolific author and shrewd court official, Cureau de La Chambre had numerous present-day copies of his books lavishly bound, in particular by the workshop of Florimond Badier and the "Rocolet" workshop, named after the bookseller and printer Pierre Rocolet.

Unknown until now and absent from the Cureau-Rocolet census drawn up by Isabelle de Conihout, this binding is to be compared to the one executed with the arms of the Grand Condé on another copy of the same work, preserved in the Rare Book Reserve of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (RES-R-1409) and made by Badier's workshop. The large angular fleur-de-lys stamped on the binding with the Prince's arms are more discreet on our copy, and alternate with small gilt flames that can be found on other bindings commissioned by Cureau de La Chambre, notably from the Rocolet workshop.

Brunet, III-726; Conihout, "Les Reliures de Marin Cureau de La Chambre et l'atelier 'Rocolet'", in Le Livre et l'historien, Etudes offertes en l'honneur du Professeur Henri-Jean Martin, 1997.