Cartesian Imagery
Picturing Philosophy in the Early Modern Age
Published on 26. February 2026
Book
Hardback
660 pages
978-90-04-53996-9 (ISBN)
Description
Cartesian Imagery is the first collection of essays entirely devoted to the role of images in Cartesian philosophy and science. Its seventeen chapters study a wealth of sources from the most disparate disciplines - from printed treatises on astronomy to anatomical sketches, from students' notebooks to board games. The collection investigates how images shaped the development of Descartes's ideas and their creative reception among supporters and detractors alike. It shows that this rich and complex process brought about new visual languages, with a long-lasting legacy. Lavishly illustrated with three-hundred figures, the collection opens up new perspectives on early modern intellectual history.
Contributors are: Ilaria Ampollini, Delphine Bellis, Jip van Besouw, Erik-Jan Bos, Davide Cellamare, Maria Conforti, Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis, Mihnea Dobre, Gary Hatfield, Eric Jorink, Christoph Luethy, Gideon Manning, Mattia Mantovani, Carla Rita Palmerino, Isabelle Pantin, David Rabouin, Christoph Sander, Luca Tonetti, and Wouter de Vries.
Contributors are: Ilaria Ampollini, Delphine Bellis, Jip van Besouw, Erik-Jan Bos, Davide Cellamare, Maria Conforti, Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis, Mihnea Dobre, Gary Hatfield, Eric Jorink, Christoph Luethy, Gideon Manning, Mattia Mantovani, Carla Rita Palmerino, Isabelle Pantin, David Rabouin, Christoph Sander, Luca Tonetti, and Wouter de Vries.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
1089 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-53996-9 (9789004539969)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mattia Mantovani, Ph.D. (2018), is FWO Senior-Postdoc Fellow at KU Leuven. He has published on late medieval and early modern philosophy and science, with a special focus on human and animal perception, and on Descartes. Together with Davide Cellamare, he is the editor of Descartes in the Classroom. Teaching Philosophy in the Early Modern Age (Brill, 2023).
Davide Cellamare, Ph.D. (2015), has published numerous articles on late medieval and early modern psychology (with a special focus on the institutional and confessional contexts) as well as on Cartesianism. Together with Mattia Mantovani, he is the editor of Descartes in the Classroom. Teaching Philosophy in the Early Modern Age (Brill, 2023).
Davide Cellamare, Ph.D. (2015), has published numerous articles on late medieval and early modern psychology (with a special focus on the institutional and confessional contexts) as well as on Cartesianism. Together with Mattia Mantovani, he is the editor of Descartes in the Classroom. Teaching Philosophy in the Early Modern Age (Brill, 2023).
Content
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Thinking with Images
Mattia Mantovani
1 The Drawings in Descartes's Letters: from Autograph to Print
Erik-Jan Bos
2 The Role of Images and Imagination in Descartes's Geometry
David Rabouin
3 Breaking with Balance: Why Did Descartes Need Such a Complicated Image of the Lever?
Jip van Besouw
4 Playing with Descartes: Images and Mechanics in a Card Deck (London, 1697)
Ilaria Ampollini
5 Paradoxical Microworlds from Descartes to De Raey
Christoph Lüthy
6 Imagining Matter: Form and Meaning in Descartes's Visual Language for Particles
Wouter de Vries
7 Terra AB: Descartes's Imagery of Magnetism and Its Legacy
Christoph Sander
8 Tam verba quam diagramma: a Visual History of the Fortune and Misfortune of Galileo's and Descartes's Theories of the Tides
Carla Rita Palmerino
9 Depicting Cartesian Cosmology in the Seventeenth Century
Mihnea Dobre
10 Pictured Hypotheses: from the Renaissance to Descartes
Isabelle Pantin
11 La Dioptrique, the Retinal Image, and the New Optics of Descartes
Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis
12 Depicting Pictures: on Why the Retinal Picture was Puzzling (or Not) in Descartes, Scheiner, and Gassendi
Delphine Bellis
13 The Medical Provenance of Cartesian Illustrations: History, Action, and Use in the Treatise on Man
Gideon Manning
14 L'homme / De homine: Images as Interpretations
Gary Hatfield
15 Visualizing Cartesian Anatomy at Leiden University: Steno, Schuyl, De Graaf, and Swammerdam
Eric Jorink
16 Through the Eyes of a Fish: Imagery of Nerves after Descartes
Maria Conforti and Luca Tonetti
17 The Philosopher Fool: Decoding a Seventeenth-Century Caricature
Mattia Mantovani
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Thinking with Images
Mattia Mantovani
1 The Drawings in Descartes's Letters: from Autograph to Print
Erik-Jan Bos
2 The Role of Images and Imagination in Descartes's Geometry
David Rabouin
3 Breaking with Balance: Why Did Descartes Need Such a Complicated Image of the Lever?
Jip van Besouw
4 Playing with Descartes: Images and Mechanics in a Card Deck (London, 1697)
Ilaria Ampollini
5 Paradoxical Microworlds from Descartes to De Raey
Christoph Lüthy
6 Imagining Matter: Form and Meaning in Descartes's Visual Language for Particles
Wouter de Vries
7 Terra AB: Descartes's Imagery of Magnetism and Its Legacy
Christoph Sander
8 Tam verba quam diagramma: a Visual History of the Fortune and Misfortune of Galileo's and Descartes's Theories of the Tides
Carla Rita Palmerino
9 Depicting Cartesian Cosmology in the Seventeenth Century
Mihnea Dobre
10 Pictured Hypotheses: from the Renaissance to Descartes
Isabelle Pantin
11 La Dioptrique, the Retinal Image, and the New Optics of Descartes
Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis
12 Depicting Pictures: on Why the Retinal Picture was Puzzling (or Not) in Descartes, Scheiner, and Gassendi
Delphine Bellis
13 The Medical Provenance of Cartesian Illustrations: History, Action, and Use in the Treatise on Man
Gideon Manning
14 L'homme / De homine: Images as Interpretations
Gary Hatfield
15 Visualizing Cartesian Anatomy at Leiden University: Steno, Schuyl, De Graaf, and Swammerdam
Eric Jorink
16 Through the Eyes of a Fish: Imagery of Nerves after Descartes
Maria Conforti and Luca Tonetti
17 The Philosopher Fool: Decoding a Seventeenth-Century Caricature
Mattia Mantovani
Bibliography
Index