Q&A Erik-Jan Bos Descartes' decipherer

摘要

Tell us about your Google search for a stolen letter. I searched for 'Descartes' and 'autograph letter', and got a hit at Haverford College in Pennsylvania on the first page. The listing immediately caught my attention. I had been using those search terms for a few years, so I knew the first 30 hits very well. From this letter, to French mathematician Marin Mersenne, we learn that Descartes had changed the introduction to his 1641 book Meditations on First Philosophy at the last minute.