Claude Clerselier and the Development of Cartesianism

This chapter concerns the relation of Claude Clerselier (1614–84) to Descartes and later Cartesianism. Clerselier was a personal acquaintance and trusted correspondent of Descartes who, after Descartes’s death, became his literary executor, and a major figure in French Cartesianism. In this discussion there are sections devoted to the following: 1) Clerselier’s interactions with Descartes; 2) his work as editor of Descartes’s correspondence and posthumous texts; 3) his role as a leader of the campaign for Cartesianism in post-Descartes France; 4) his involvement in controversies over Cartesianism that focused on the theological issue of the Eucharist; and 5) the legacy of his influence on French Cartesianism.