The blind-embossed cover of Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
The spine of Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
The title page spread from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
I. THE MOUNTAIN AND THE RIVER
“A comic sort of justice that has a river for its boundary! Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other.” —Pensée 108
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
II. FUTILITY AND DESPAIR
“The only thing that consoles us for our misery is distraction, and yet it is the greatest of our miseries. For it is mainly responsible for preventing us from thinking about ourselves and for our gradual ruin.” —Pensée 128
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
III. MAN: ANGEL OR BEAST
“Man is neither angel nor beast, and it is a misfortune that whoever tries to play the angel ends by playing the beast.” —Pensée 257
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
IV. THE DUNGEON
“Let us imagine a number of men in irons, and all condemned to death,…So that the surviviors see their own state in that of their fellows, and, looking at one another in sorrow and without hope, await their turn. It is the image of the human condition.” —Pensée 314
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
V. JESUS HEALING
“‘The doctors will not heal you; for in the end you will die. But I heal and make the body immortal.’” —Pensée 739
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
VI. SYMBOLS
“Saviour, father, sacrificer host, nourishment, king, sage, legislator, man of sorrows…” —Pensée 524
“The symbol is founded on truth, and truth is recognized by means of the symbol” —Pensée 530
An illustration from Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Translated by Martin Turnell. Illustrated by Ismar David. Typography by Charles E. Scaggs. Bloomfield, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1971. xix, 184 p., 30 cm.
VII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHURCH
“I see the Christian religion founded on an earlier religion, and that is what I find convincing.” —Pensée 555