John KEILL

First French edition, translated from Latin by Lemonnier according to Barbier and J. de Lalande (astronomical bibliography). It is illustrated with 16 folding plates (moon, zodiac, astronomical calculations), numerous tables of the sun and moon, of Jupiter and Saturn, and logarithms. General privilege granted to the Royal Academy of Sciences on November 12, 1734. It should be noted with interest that this edition is, according to Lalande, so extensively augmented and so different from its English counterpart that it is considered original. The selenographic maps noted I, II, III, inserted on page 140, are reproduced respectively from the works of: Hevelius (1645), Royal Academy of Sciences (1692) and Grimaldi/Riccioli.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Brown sheep title label. Upper joint narrowly cracked for most of its length. Lower joint split at head and tail. Boards rubbed and scuffed, with some lacks. Corners very bumped and trimmed, worn. Scattered worming.
The treatise is preceded by a dissertation on recent progress in astronomy. The work is a scientific presentation of the great astronomical laws (movement, time, eclipses...) and the solar system, with different calculation methods. It also relates all the great astronomical observations.