HISTOIRE DU CIEL,; ou l'on Recherche L'origine de l'idolatrie, et les meprises de al philosophie sur la formation, & sur les influences des Corps Celestes. [in two volumes]

Haye: Jean Neaulme, 1744. Fourth edition, revised and corrected. 12mo, pp. [iv], xxxv, 516; [ii], 495. With an engraved frontispiece and 23 full page engraved plates of solar symbols and figures. Bound in contemporary full French calf, spines gilt in compartments, little rubbed but a very good tight set. A little light marginal water marks. See (for the first edition). Cioranescu 50658; Sander 1579; Dorbon 3689; Houzeau-Lancaster I, 645; DSB XI, 44; Caillet 8755. Rare, the OCLC locates just two copies, one in the US. (EYM, EMW). A discussion on the mythology and influence of celestial bodies. A French writer, Pluche (1688-1761) was a classical professor at Reims, before taking Holy Orders and becoming director of the college at Clarement. His opinions forced him to leave the college and he settled in France where he made his reputation with his popular work "Spectacle de al Nature" (1732) in nine volumes. It was translated into 9 languages and was popular in England. The present work was first issued in 1735.
This Catholic apologist offers a extended discussion of Newtonianism and the conformity of modern science to the teachings of Genesis. "In his Histoire, Pluche restated his opposition to the cosmologies proposed by the physicists-whom he termed `romans philosophiques'-- and sought to display the excellence of the physics of Moses, which supposedly conforms to the teachings of both `history and experimental physics. He also attemped to demonstrate that monotheism preceded polytheism." (Dic. of Scientific Biog. XI, pp. 42-44).