BUONAPARTE, Carlo Maria di (1746-1785, father of Napoleon I). Autograph manuscript signed (in the title, 'Bonaparte Carolus'), Ajaccio, 15-29 February 1764, 'In secundum annum Philosophiae Post 15o Logicae una sumulis, Liber 7us in Metaphysicam', an essay on free will and predestination, in Latin, 17 pages, small 4to (215 x 155 mm) on leaves numbered on recto, 1a - 9a, bound in a notebook, paper covers, in a modern portfolio. Provenance: Dr Max Thorek of Chicago (1880-1960, ownership stamp on first blank leaf); Stargardt sale, 12 June 2002, lot 1259; the Albin Schram Collection. Homework written while the seventeen-year old Carlo di Buonaparte was completing his theological education in Ajaccio, before going to study law in Pisa. The essay compares the basis of the Tridentine confession with Calvin's doctrine of Predestination, and the Aryan heresy. Beginning in mid-sentence, it is probably connected to an earlier manuscript: 'Et obiecta absolute, et contingenter existentia: Datur in Deo scientia, qua cognoscit futtura contingentia conditionata, scilicet futtura sub aliqua hypotesi non connexa essentialiter ...'.