Dupleix, Scipion

Abstract

Scipion Dupleix was a magistrate born in the southwest of France and renowned for his historiography of the Bourbons. He was also a pioneer in the popularization of scholastic philosophy in France. Between 1600 and 1610, he produced four works, his Logique (Paris, Salis, 1600), Physique (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1603, followed in 1604 by the Suitte de la Physique, dealing with the question of the soul), Métaphysique (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1610), and Éthique (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1610), along with two other works, the first entitled Les Causes de la Veille et du Sommeil, des Songes, de la Vie et de la Mort (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1606), inspired by Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia, and La Curiosité Naturelle Redigée en Questions (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1606), inspired by the Problemata genre and classifying each “problem” in alphabetical order, a singularly new idea at the time. These texts were later brought together and published under the title Corps de Philosophie. This was a commercial, mass circulation edition, free of royal censorship, first printed in Lyon by Rigaud in 1620 and subsequently in Rouen and Geneva. A further edition, entitled Cours de Philosophie, was published with the author’s approval by his customary publisher, Sonnius. Dupleix’s complete works met with resounding success up until 1645 and his Curiosité Naturelle was even translated into English (The Resolver or Curiosities of Nature, London, 1635).