A simple Google-search opened a new world for Jeremy S. Hyman, an instructor in the Department of Philosophy specializing in the 17th century French philosopher, René Descartes. For many years, Hyman had been scouring the internet in the hopes of finding any of the lost correspondence of Descartes–a common pursuit among Descartes scholars. And he had already had one success: the discovery of the autograph of a 1642 letter from Descartes to the French theologian Gibieuf.

But further spare-time searching was to yield a much more substantial find. Late one night, Hyman searched for “First Philosophy”—a portion of the complete title of Descartes’ major work, Meditations on First Philosophy. Much to his surprise, he found an entry to a manuscript held by the rare book collection of the municipal library in Toulouse, France. The entry mentioned what turned out to be the original title of the work, as well as the fact that the work was preceded by a Synopsis and the fact that there were 68 folio pages in the volume. There was no mention of the other material that appeared in printed editions of the Meditations, which included a Dedicatory Letter to the Faculty of the Sorbonne, a Preface to the reader, and, in the first printed edition and an Index.

Intrigued, Hyman set off to Toulouse to investigate. Upon arriving at the library and being presented with the manuscript, Hyman had no doubt that this was a true find.