Pascal blaise

1754 · 2414 — Paris 1754. 8vo 157 x 105 mm. 70 pages. Calligraphic title signed and dated by the scribe. Text in a neat italic script in dark brown ink 14-15 lines first lines of headings and initials in red ink faded thick and thin rule page borders throughout. A few additions or corrections. Some dust-soiling small stains in gutters of first 4 leaves. Contemporary mottled calf gilt edges broken defective. Provenance: Jean de St. Haond signature on title; given in 1759 to a female relative when she took her vows: inscription on front flyleaf "Ce livre est a l'usage de la Soeur Saint Haon qui est entrer sic aux sic Couvent pour etre religieuse le 6 mars mille sept cent cinq quante neuf âgée de dix neuf ans" This book is for the use of Sister Saint Haon who entered the Convent to become a nun on March 6 1759 at the age of 19.<br/><br/>A gift upon taking the veil: this manuscript copy of Pascal's prayer for the sick to accept their fate as the will of god was written by a young boy or adolescent for his father and given to a female relative of the same name no doubt his sister upon her entry into a convent. <br/><br/>Following his youthful achievements in mathematics and physics Pascal turned his energies exclusively to philosophy and theology. He suffered from poor health throughout his short life and died aged 39 in 1662. This prayer for the right attitude toward illness was probably written in 1660. By then seriously ill Pascal had begun rejecting the prescriptions of his doctors affirming that "sickness is the natural state of the Christian." The piece was first published posthumously in Divers traitez de pieté Cologne i.e. Paris 1666. <br/> <br/>Jean de Saint Haond or Sainthaond wrote this manuscript for his father probably as a devoir or assignment. In the three-page dedicatory epistle the scribe writes of his filial duty and joy at being able to fulfill his father's request for a transcription of the prayer. While the handwriting is neat he not yet mastered the spacing: many line endings run into or overlap the right-hand page border and in seven instances words or word endings had to be inserted at the bottom of the page in the position usually occupied by catchwords. Saint Haond added at the end a nine-page "General prayer regarding salvation" Oraison universelle pour tout ce qui regarde le salut. <br/><br/>Five years later Mlle now Sister Saint Haond came into possession of the manuscript upon taking her vows. She clearly lacked her brother's education: assuming that the inscription to that effect is in her hand her orthography and grammar were a bit shaky. While I have not succeeded in identifying the individuals the family name of Saint Haond or Sainthaond is associated with the upper Loire region where there remains a hamlet of that name. unknown books