Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, depuis son origine jusqu'à l'établissement de l'école d'Alexandrie [SUIVI DE] Histoire de l'astronomie moderne depuis la fondation de l'école d'Alexandrie jusqu'à l'époque de M.D.CC.XXX. [SUIVI DE] Traité de l'astronomie indienne et orientale, ouvrage qui peut servir de suite à l'histoire de l'astronomie ancienne

A complete set of the astronomical writings of Jean Sylvain Bailly, partly in first edition. This is the main work of the author,  first Mayor of Paris, elected during his lifetime to three French academies, a distinction previously achieved only by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle.

The present set comprises the second edition of the Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, the new edition of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne, and the first edition of the Traité de l'astronomie indienne et orientale. All three were published during the author's lifetime.

It is moreover complete with all 21 plates, engraved by Pierre Claude de La Gardette and Yves-Marie Le Gouaz. The three plates belonging to the Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne have here been inserted at the end of the Traité de l'astronomie indienne et orientale, which is further embellished with handsome tailpieces, some depicting the art of engraving.

Contemporary bindings in brown tree sheep, smooth spines with gilt compartments decorated with stylised fleurons, lettering-pieces in pale calf, numbering pieces for the three volumes of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne in green calf, boards with a blind-stamped fillet border, gilt fillet on the board edges, all edges yellow, pastedowns and endpapers in pebble-pattern marbled paper.

Rubbing to the joints, minor surface scuffs to the boards' extremities, corners bumped.

Vol. 1 of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne: leather loss to the upper margin of the front joint.

Vol. 2: small losses to the lower headcap, which is also very slightly split; discreet browning at the head of the upper board.

Vol. 3: minimal losses to the lower headcap; white scratch to the lower board. Traité de l'astronomie indienne et orientale: two nicks to the lower board leading to minor leather loss.

Scattered foxing throughout; otherwise in sound general condition.

Vol. 1 of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne: pale marginal dampstain to pp. 272-275, followed by light offsetting on pp. 276-277; further pale dampstain to pp. 328-336; tear to the margin of p. 363; similar dampstaining to pp. 411-415, 433-451, 483-545, and 579-667.

Vol. 3: paper flaw at p. 35 slightly affecting legibility. 

Traité de l'astronomie indienne et orientale: pale marginal dampstaining to pp. lij-liij, 68-104, 249-260, and 321-328; small marginal stains to p. 321.

Two bookplates appear on the front pastedown of each volume. The first, affixed in the upper left corner, belonged to a distinguished contemporary of the author: "Otto de Mosloy", who is none other than Louis-Guillaume Otto, comte de Mosloy, diplomat to the United States under Louis XVI, and subsequently to London, Munich, and Vienna under Napoleon. The second bookplate, at the centre, almost certainly derives from the library of "Louis [Léger] Salanson", former conseiller général of the Aisne. His name has been obscured by a paper slip in the Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne and in vols. 1 and 2 of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne. This slip has been removed from vol. 3, leaving minor marks.

The Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne is copiously annotated: one of the rear endleaves carries 21 manuscript lines in brown ink, in all likelihood in the hand of Louis-Guillaume Otto.

A few pencil annotations and underlinings appear in vols. 1 and 2 of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne.

"When Bailly undertook this general history of Astronomy, the science possessed nothing of the sort. Erudition had seized upon some special questions, some detailed points, but no commanding view had presided over these investigations. [...] Bailly sketches the plan of his work with a masterly hand in a few lines; he says, 'It is interesting to transport one's self back to the times when Astronomy began; to observe how discoveries were connected together, how errors have got mixed up with truth, have delayed the knowledge of it, and retarded its progress; and, after having followed the various epochs and traversed every climate, finally to contemplate the edifice founded on the labours of successive centuries and of various nations.' [...] Bailly's History, without forfeiting the character of a serious and erudite work, became accessible to the public in general, and contributed to disseminate accurate notions of Astronomy both among literary men and among general society."

"In 1775, Bailly sent the first volume of his history to Voltaire. In thanking him for his present, the illustrious old man addressed to the author one of those letters that he alone could write, in which flattering and enlivening sentences were combined without effort with high reasoning powers.

'I have many thanks to return you, (said the Patriarch of Ferney,) for having on the same day received a large book on medicine and yours, while I was still ill; I have not opened the first, I have already read the second almost entirely, and feel better.'"

Dominique François Arago, Biographie de Jean-Sylvain Bailly, 1852