Important history of ancient astronomy, with chapters on Egyptian, Chaldean and Persian astronomy 1775

Jean-Sylvain Bailly

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• About the artwork
  Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, depuis son origine jusqu'a l'établissement de l'École d'Alexandrie.
  Paris, Debure brothers, 1775. 4to. With 3 numbered folding engraved plates.
  Beautifully bound in contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, each board with coat of arms of Simon-Pierre Merard de Saint-Just in the centre, marbled endpapers. In modern slipcase covered with marbled paper.
  
  First edition of a history of astronomy from prehistoric times to the Alexandrian school in the third century BC, by Jean-Sylvain Bailly. It covers not only European and biblical sources but also the cosmographical concepts of Chinese, Egyptian, Persian and Chaldean astronomers. Some of the surviving artefacts that provided a basis for his studies are illustrated in the plates, which are designed to fold out so that one can view them while paging through the text.
  
  This copy was originally owned by and bound for Bailly's most important contemporary biographer, his friend Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint-Just, who published Eloge historique de Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1794). His arms appear on the binding. In very good condition, with only a few minor spots. The binding also very good, only slightly worn around the corners and hinges. An important work on ancient astronomy, beautifully bound for the author's biographer.
  
  DSB I, pp. 400-402; Houzeau & Lancaster 22; Smith, "Jean-Sylvain Bailly; astronomer, mystic, revolutionary", in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 44 (1954), pp. 427-538.
• About the artist
  Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736, Paris – 1793, Paris) was a French astronomer, known for his computation of an orbit for Halley’s Comet (1759) and for his studies of the satellites of Jupiter. He entered to the Académie des Sciences in 1763. His major works include Essai sur la théorie des satellites de Jupiter (1766; Essay on the theory of Jupiters’satellites) and Mémoires sur les inégalité’s de la lumière des satellites de Jupiter (1771; Memoirs on the uneven illumination of Jupiter’s satellites). In 17775 he wrote a widely spread history of astronomy: Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne depuis son origine jusqu’`a l’ établissement de l’École d’Alexandrie (History of ancient astronomy from its origin tot he establishment of the School of Alexandria). He was chosen president of the third estate (representing the majority of the people) of the États Généraux (Estates-General). He was proclaimed the first mayor of Paris in 1789, but he lost soon popularity. Bailly retired in 1891 and moved to Nantes in 1792, where he wrote his Mémoires d’un témoin de la Révolution (Memoirs of a witness of the Revolution). In 1793 he was arrested and taken before a revolutionary tribunal in Paris on November 10. He was guillotined on November 12.