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Copy of an important work on the history of astronomy from the library of the first biographer of Jean-Sylvain Bailly

BAILLY, Jean-Sylvain.
Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, depuis son origine jusqu'à l'établissement de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie.

With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces.

With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces.

With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces.

With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces.

With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces.



Paris, the Brothers Debure, 1775. 4to. Beautifully bound in contemporary red morocco with gilt fillets along the edges, 4 floral corner-pieces and a gilt coat-of-arms of Simon-Pierre Merard de Saint-Just with the motto 'L'honneur et l'amour', on both sides, spine richly gilt in compartments with green title-label lettered in gold, inner dentelles, g.e., marbled endpapers, in modern slip-case covered with marbled paper. With 3 folding engraved plates and many interesting head- and tail-pieces. (2), XXII, 526 pp.

First edition of this work on the history of astronomy by Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793) who was born in the Louvre as the son of the keeper of the Royal paintings. In 1760 he installed his own observatory in the Louvre investigating astronomical phenomena such as Halley's comet and Jupiter's satellites, writing papers on these subject that were published by the Académie des Sciences. Later Bailly turned his attention to literary pursuits. These were given direction by his scientific activity and subsequently he published a number of works on the history of astronomy, of which the present work is the first, treating the history of astronomy till the end of the classical period, including the cosmographical concepts of Chinese and Egyptian astronomers.
The book is Bailly's most lasting achievement. Its argument for an antediluvean astronomy that prepared the way for the astronomers of recorded history, brought him in conflict with Voltaire and resulted in the publication of his Lettres sur l'origine des sciences (1777) and the similar Lettres sur l'Atlantide de Platon (1778).
The work is one of the most important histories of ancient astronomy ever published and a milestone in post-revolutionary French scientific literature.
Bailly was the first elected burgomaster of Paris (1789-91), but fallen into disgrace he ended on the scaffold in 1793.
The most important general biography of Bailly by a contemporary is that by Bailly's friend Mérard de Saint-Just: Eloge historique de Jean-Sylvain Bailly ou nom de la république des lettres, par une sociétéde gens de lettres; suivi de notes et de quelques pièces en prose et en vers (1794).

This same Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint-Just was the first owner of our copy!

Very good and beautifully bound copy from the library of Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint-Just; with a bookplate, pasted to the inner side of the front cover with a coat of arms and the motto 'Vix ex nostra voco'.
Houzeau & Lancaster 22; DSB I, p. 400-2; E.B. Smith, 'Jean-Sylvain Bailly; Astronomer, Mystic, Revolutionary', in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 44 (1954), p. 427-538.

Related Subjects: Antiques  Astronomy & Cosmography  Bindings 

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