Posted on 06/09/2010 1:10:13 PM PDT by Daffynition
PARIS (AFP) A stolen letter written by 17th-century thinker Descartes and found in the United States was returned to France on Tuesday, ending a detective tale featuring a Google search and a thieving Italian count.
"I am, of course, a bit amazed at what a simple search at home from your home computer late at night can bring about," Erik-Jan Bos, a Dutch Descartes scholar who found the letter through the web, said before a handover ceremony.
The letter written by French philosopher Rene Descartes in 1641 went missing more than 150 years ago, one of a vast collection of documents stolen by an Italian count, Guglielmo Libri.
Libri, a math professor in France in the 19th century who was also in charge of inspecting archived papers, is believed to have stolen thousands of letters and documents, selling them to collectors and booksellers.
Descartes' letter eventually wound up in a collection at Haverford College in the US state of Pennsylvania, and the school's administration was not aware of its theft generations earlier when Bos informed them of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"I thought I wrote some books..well, ah-uh,..maybe not..maybe I just read some books.."
The original version was: I ink, therefore, I am.
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Gods |
Thanks wildbill. |
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