The Early Life of Descartes

If one had delayed longer in carefully gathering the circumstances of the life of M. Descartes, it would surely have happened to him, concerning the place of his birth, as has been published regarding Homer, whose birthplace was claimed by seven different cities, owing to the uncertainty caused by the negligence with which his life had been written. In the course of time, various towns of Touraine, of Poitou, and of Brittany would have attributed to themselves the glory of having seen our philosopher born within their walls. Already, Sieur Borel had written that he was born in the town of Châtellerault in Poitou. Sieur Crasso had already asserted that it was in the château of Perron—he calls it Perri, and places it, wrongly, on the borders of Brittany and Poitou. And many, following an opinion quite commonly spread throughout the world, believed him to be a native of Rennes in Brittany.

But it is certain that M. Descartes had no other homeland than La Haye in Touraine. It is a small town situated between Touraine and Poitou, on the river Creuse, at a nearly equal distance of about ten leagues between the city of Tours and that of Poitiers—south of the former, and northeast of the latter. There is no region in France that one could prefer to this southern part of Touraine, whether for the mildness of its air and climate, the goodness of its soil and waters, or the charm afforded by the mixture of life’s conveniences. Yet one might doubt whether these advantages were much marked in the person of M. Descartes, either in body or in mind. They certainly did not contribute greatly to his health, which was never well established except when he left the country to bear arms and to travel. And if one is to trust his own opinion, one will not attribute to them whatever vivacity and quickness of mind he may have received by nature. Though on occasion he extolled the charms of his native land, calling it the “gardens of Touraine” in contrast with northern lands, he made it sufficiently clear that he did not believe men in this regard to be like trees. For the consequences one might wish to draw from the climate of one’s birth, it would be better if the place of conception were the same as that of birth. Such was not the case with M. Descartes, who had been conceived in Brittany during the time his father spent at the parliament there.

He was born on the last day of March 1596.

This is a circumstance we might perhaps never have known, had he been followed in the delicacy he always showed on this point. It was not his fault that this entry in the baptismal registers of his parish, and in the genealogical archives of his house, was not left buried in oblivion. At least he revealed such a disposition of mind on the occasion of a portrait one of his friends had engraved in Holland, in which that friend had inscribed the day and year of his birth. We still have the letter he wrote to this man, asking him not to let this portrait appear; or, if he could not obtain that favor, at least to remove the words natus die ultimo martii 1596, because, he said, he had an aversion to astrologers, whose errors one seems to encourage by publishing the day of someone’s birth. This was less a reason than a pretext, which he used to avoid the embarrassment—or the glory—of being displayed to the public, even in painting.

It was year 7 of the reign of the good Henry 4th, which ended on August 2, 1596.

• He had been solemnly reconciled with the Roman Church by the absolution the pope had given him on Sunday, September 17, 1595.

And so 1596 was among the happiest because this was when King Henry:

• received the submissions of the Dukes of Mayenne, Nemours, and Joyeuse
• recovered the city of Marseille from the Spaniards through the Duke of Guise
• retook the city of La Fère in Picardy
• he received the legate, Cardinal de Medici, sent by the pope to strengthen more than ever the ancient union of the Holy See with France, and to induce the king to make peace with Spain—a peace concluded at Vervins two years later.

Pope Clement 8th was entering the fifth year of his pontificate.

Emperor Rudolf II was completing the twentieth year of his reign. Philip II, king of Spain, was in the forty-first year of his reign since the abdication of his father, the emperor.

It had been only one year since Mehmed III ascended the Ottoman throne, and he was then waging war in Hungary, which soon resulted in the capture of Eger from the Germans.

Poland and Sweden were at that time under the obedience of Sigismund III. It had been ten years since he had obtained the first crown by election, and scarcely three since he had inherited the second by right. Denmark was enjoying peace in the ninth year of the reign of Christian IV, though he had not been crowned until that same year, owing to his youth.

It was also in that year that the Catholic Netherlands received their new governor, Archduke and Cardinal Albert, who became master and proprietor of them by means of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, whom he married two years later.

Finally, it was that year that Holland and England renewed, by a new treaty, their alliance with France, to strengthen themselves against their enemies; and that England lost her admiral Drake, in the midst of the prosperity she enjoyed under Queen Elizabeth, then in the thirty-ninth year of her reign.

The state of the Republic of Letters was neither too flourishing nor too fallen at the time of M. Descartes’ birth.

Grammar and the humanities were still honored by Sanctius in Spain, by Sylburg in Germany (who died that year), and by Passerat in France. One may add Scioppius, who, though still young, was already shining among the first rank of grammarians and humanists.

Poetry had received a great blow from the death of Tasso the previous year. Sustained only weakly in Italy by Guarini and a few young poets, it was gradually being refined in France through the care of Malherbe.

Criticism and philology were worthily pursued by Lipsius, by Joseph Scaliger, by Casaubon, by Nicolas Le Fèvre, and by Father Sirmond, who was already beginning to distinguish himself.

As for eloquence, one may say it had struggled to revive after the deaths of Perpinian, of Muret, and of Benci, who had died but two years before. Only a shadow of it remained at the bar, the pulpit, and the school; but the Advocate-General Marion, and Du Vair, Keeper of the Seals, maintained it in France with as much vigor and majesty as their age could sustain.

Ancient philosophy, and particularly that of Aristotle, was then being sharply attacked by Francesco Patrizi, who survived but a year after the birth of M. Descartes; and Chancellor Bacon was already laying the foundations of the new philosophy.

Mathematics were in fairly good condition, in the hands of those working to perfect them. Geometry was well cultivated by Clavius in Rome, but even better by M. Viète in France. Astronomy by Tycho Brahe and his disciple Kepler, by William, Landgrave of Hesse, and those working under him, and by Galileo, who was beginning to appear. Chronology by Scaliger. Geography by Ortelius and Merula, after Mercator, who had died only two years earlier. Mechanics, and its various branches, by Stevin. But the same could not be said of optics and music, for which the hour had not yet come.

The progress of true medicine was not as considerable at the time of M. Descartes’ birth as that of mathematics. Those who professed it or wrote on it did not yet possess the lights received since, to advance in the knowledge of so necessary a science.

Jurisprudence had flourished for nearly the whole of that century, particularly in France; but it appeared somewhat in decline since the death of Cujas and of Hotman. It was still upheld, however, by the ability of the two Pithous (the elder of whom died that same year), by Du Faur de Saint-Jory, by Barclay the elder, and by the principal magistrates of the Parliament of Paris, who were for the most part men of letters.

Finally, theology then reigned among the other sciences, through the ministry of Bellarmine, of Estius, of Du Perron, and of the faculties of Paris and Louvain. It was still under the attacks of Béza and Hunnius among the Protestants of both sects.

Such was the state of letters at the time of Descartes’ birth.

• The state of letters suffered a great reduction that same year by the deaths of several distinguished men.

The number of those whom God caused to be born at the same time to fill this void would have been too small to repair the loss of so many excellent men, had not Descartes alone sufficed for several.