TOURNEMINE (René-Joseph de). ESSAY DE LA SCIENCE UNIVERSELLE in which the general principles of all the sciences and the best (sic) way of learning them are discussed. 1693. Very legible manuscript of 2-335 pages, in-8, stiff vellum (contemporary binding). The Jesuit Father de Tournemine (1661-1739), who edited the famous Mémoires de Trévoux, was in charge of the library at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he made friends with two brilliant pupils: Voltaire and Fontenelle. This manuscript is certainly unpublished, as the author of a handwritten note by M. de Villenave, an autograph collector, points out Father Tournemine warns in his preface: "If this treatise does not make you very skilful, it will at least give you the means to become so, ... several things that you will find nowhere else together, and I can even say that there are certain things that I owe to no one ...". A very good copy.