Texts & cultural history
Jan Maire
Leiden printer
Also known as Jean Maire · Joannes Maire
Who they are
Jan Maire printed the first edition of Descartes’s Discourse on Method in Leiden in 1637. The surviving catalogue record identifies the printer and place alongside the author. He appears here because the circulation of scientific and philosophical arguments depended on the work of printers as well as the thinkers whose names appeared on books.
His connection is publication and transmission of Descartes’s work.
Selected contributions
- Printed the 1637 Leiden first edition of the Discourse on Method.Source ↗
Primary records
Book · 1637
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences
Descartes explains his approach to reasoning and inquiry, including dividing problems, ordering their solution and checking completeness. The selected opening sections connect the history of scientific method with the timeline’s broader questions about evidence.
The original French work appeared in 1637; the linked text is John Veitch’s later English translation, transcribed by Project Gutenberg.
Reading scope & citation
Reused first-edition catalogue metadata for Maire’s printing role and previously inspected translated methodological passages; no new facsimile review. Reused prior inspected evidence: Relevant translated primary passages inspected; no claim of reviewing every application or endorsing the metaphysical system.
In the timeline
Biography sources
- Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences ↗Utrecht University Library record of Leiden University Library copy; original printer Jan Maire