Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1670. First edition. Large duodecimo (157 x 89 mm), pp. [lxxxii], 365, [1], [20]. Woodcut vignette to title page, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, wood-engraved headpiece on p. 1. Contemporary mottled calf, spine decorated and lettered in gilt, edges sprinkled red. Near-contemporary ink annotation to foot of p. 52, later pencil annotations and emendations to several pages. Light bumping and rubbing, rear joint cracked at head but holding firm, spine slightly cocked and with spot of worming to foot, infrequent minor damp staining, offsetting, and foxing. A Very Good copy.

Pascal's Pensées is one of the great theological works in history, a seminal example of Christian apologetics, and a classic of French literature. Writing amid the explosion of Cartesian rationalism, Pascal emphasizes an intuitionist-style approach to religion, while at the same time outlining one of the best-known rational arguments for religious belief – the wager. Writing early in the book, Pascal observes that, regardless of one’s actual beliefs, the very notion of God requires one to take a loaded gamble on his existence: “ouy; mais il faut parier” (p. 56).

At his death in 1662, Pascal left behind bundles of fragmentary notes for an inchoate book of Christian apologetics. The proper order of these notes has been debated for centuries, but this edition contains the arrangement devised by his executors, and particularly his sister Gilberte, who had previously published a biography of her illustrious brother. A “pré-originale” printing of this first edition with a title page dated 1669 is known in two surviving copies, and was an advance issue likely for circulation to Pascal’s associates and to gain approbations. Very Good (Item #7821)