An open library of thought
Measure reason by what exceeds it.
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
These records present three groups of writings: the Pensées, the Provincial Letters and the scientific writings on the vacuum and fluids. The mathematical treatises, the Writings on Grace, the Memorial, the letters and the conversation with Sacy are not indexed separately, and fragment numbers in the Pensées depend on the edition used.
011670
Pascal worked on the project from about 1656 until his death in 1662, leaving several hundred fragments, many sorted into titled bundles. The Port-Royal edition of 1670 selected and softened them; modern editions such as those of Louis Lafuma and Philippe Sellier follow the copies made after his death, so fragment numbers differ from one edition to another.
021656–1657
The letters appeared as separate pamphlets between January 1656 and March 1657, at the height of the quarrel over grace and the five propositions attributed to Jansenius. Arnauld and Nicole helped with the documentation. Rome placed the collection on the Index in 1657, yet its clarity and irony made it a model of classical French prose.
031647–1663
The New Experiments Concerning the Vacuum appeared in 1647 and drew Pascal into a dispute with the Jesuit Étienne Noël, who denied that empty space could exist. In 1648 his brother-in-law Florin Périer carried the tube up the Puy de Dôme and found the mercury lower at the summit. The treatises on fluids and air, finished around 1654, were published by Périer in 1663.