DISCOURS SUR LES DIFFERENTES FIGURES DES ASTRES Ou l'on donne l'Explication des Taches lumineuses qu'on a observées dans le Ciel: Des Etoiles qui paroissent s'allumer & s'eteindre: by MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de.: - 1742

Paris, G. Martin, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, & les Freres Guerin, 1742.. De celles qui paroissent changer de grandeur: De l'Anneau de Saturne: Et des effets que peuvent produire les Cometes. SECOND EDITION 1742 much enlarged, (first published in 1732), French text, 8vo, approximately 200 x 120 mm, 7¾ x 4¾ inches, engraved frontispiece printed on a blue ground, woodcut diagrams in the text, pages [16], 1-176, half-title present, bound in full antique mottled calf, raised bands, gilt decoration in compartments, gilt lettered morocco label, all edges red, marbled endpapers. Spine showing wear, 10 mm (½ inch) repair at head, tiny chips at tail and to 3 of the raised bands, hinges starting to crack at top, corners slightly worn, front inner paper hinge cracked, sign of removal of small bookplate to front pastedown, occasional slight light foxing, otherwise contents very bright and clean. Binding tight and firm. A good sound copy of an important astronomical book. Maupertuis (1698-1759) studied mathematics in Paris and became converted to Newtonian mechanics during a visit to London in 1728. This was his first published work and is considered the first unequivocal Newtonian text to come from a French scientist. "In it he objected to Cartesianism on the ground that it was unable to explain why Kepler's laws should hold." In his second book La Figure de la Terre (1738) he published the results of an expedition with the scientist Clairaut to Lapland to measure as accurately as possible the length of a degree of longitude, by which he was able to prove Newton's theory that the earth was flattened at the poles. See: Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook, page 346-7; Babson Catalogue of Newton's Works, page 48. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.