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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
CASSINI DE THURY, CÉSAR-FRANÇOIS. Le Méridienne de l'Observatoire Royal de Paris, vérifiée dans toute l'Étendue du Royaume par de Nouvelles Observations. 9 folding engraved plates; 5 folding engraved maps. [10], 292, ccxxxv, [17] pages, including half-title. 4to, 249x186 mm, contemporary mottled calf gilt, front cover detached; occasional foxing; marbled edges. Paris: Hippolyte-Louis & Jacques Guérin, 1744
first edition of an important work in the controversy between Cartesian and Newtonian adherents over the shape of the earth. On the basis of 1739-40 measurements of the meridian of Paris, Cassini de Thury abandoned the Cartesian view of his father Jacques in favor of the Newtonian conception of the earth as an oblate spheroid. BEA, page 205; DSB III, 108; Norman 413.
