EXPOSITION DU SYSTÈME DU MONDE. Sixième edition.

Bachelier, Paris, 1835 [2], xiv, [2], 474, [2] printed pages, with fine copper engraved frontispiece portrait. Silk ribbon bookmark. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Inner blind tooled dentelles. Owner's pencilled name "C.H.Prior" on preliminary blank page. Mild foxing. 22.5 x 27.5 cm. Contemporary full diced calf binding. Spine in six compartments with hand-tooled emblems of crossed arrows and celestial spheres, floreate edges and twin gilt ruled borders, with tesselated design at foot and tail, gilt lettering and tooled raised bands. Diced calf boards with arrow & sphere designed tooling in each corner and double gilt ruled and blind dotted borders. dges gilt tooled. Corners bumped and a little worn. Edges and raised bands slighty worn. Boards with very slight handling wear. The binding is gorgeously patinated and glowing with 185 years of handling, leaving it very tactile. "One of the most successful popularizations of science ever composed." -Dictionary of Scientific Biography. An accompaniment to the author's lectures on calculus, mechanics, and astronomy. Contains sections on observable astronomical phenomena, real motion of planets, satellites and comets, a summarization of his work in gravitational mechanics, and a survey of the history of astronomy. "An elegant, non-mathematical classic on astronomy. It is in this work that Laplace introduced one of his most notable contributions (although he himself did not take it very seriously at first) -- the so-called nebular hypothesis, which provided a conjectural account of the origin of the solar system," which exercised powerful influence on scientific thought throughout the 19th century.. 5th or later Edition. Hardcover. Very Good.