# Descartes’ Bones

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones/9780349140193

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones/9780349140193.json

![Descartes’ Bones](https://quivercdn.com/covers/abacus/russell-shorto/descartes-bones_978-03-4914-019-3.jpg?v=2026-05-18%2014%3A30%3A17)

- Book: [Descartes’ Bones](https://www.bookquiver.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones) ([Descartes’ Bones.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones.md))
- Authors: [Russell Shorto](https://www.bookquiver.com/russell-shorto)
- Publisher: abacus
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-03-4914-019-3
- Published: 2013-11-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

Sixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.