Abrégé d'Astronomie par Jérôme Lalande - 1795

In Paris, at Firmin Didot, 1795. In-8, 419 pp. 16 engraved plates folded in-fine. Bound in half cardboard, flat spine, title label in red morocco. Traces of foxing.

Lalande is one of the most famous French astronomers of the 18th century. After studying law, Lalande turned to astronomy under the influence of Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and Pierre-Charles Lemonnier. The latter, at a time when measuring the distance from the Earth to the Moon was occupying people's minds, showed the need to send an astronomer to Berlin to make concerted observations with those of Abbot La Caille at the Cape of Good Hope. .

Lalande who was chosen. In 1751, at the age of 19, he began his career as an astronomer by making the first precise determination of lunar parallax. Back in Paris, he continued to work on determining distances in the solar system. During Venus' transits in front of the Sun in 1761 and 1769, it was chosen to collect the observations of astronomers from around the world. He published a value for the distance from the Sun to the Earth which was for a long time the "standard" value and which was very close to current data. He published a catalog of the stars in 1791. He composed the Dictionary of Astronomy of the Methodical Encyclopedia. Succeeding Delisle at the Royal College in 1761, he taught there for 46 years and his courses were famous. From 1795 to 1800, he was director of the Paris observatory