COSMOLOGY. ‘Traité de L’Univers ou Cosmographie’, manuscript in an informal hand, [mid-18th century].
COSMOLOGY. ‘Traité de L’Univers ou Cosmographie’, manuscript in an informal hand, [mid-18th century]. Decorative vignette, introductory letter, 20 full-page diagrams and text on 133 pages, including approximately 35 further neatly-drawn diagrams. In French, altogether 156 pages, quarto (226 x 180mm), plus blanks (the first leaf tipped onto guards). 18th-century calf gilt (minor worming, rather rubbed and worn). A primer on cosmography for the benefit of a young female pupil, including a comparison of the various systems of the universe, from Ptolemy to Copernicus. The figures show an armillary sphere, a ‘Globe artificiel’, the Ptolemaic, Tychonic and Copernican systems, the movement of planets and comets, the ‘Tourbillons de Descartes’, the measurement of the Earth, etc. The introductory letter makes it clear that this cosmographical treatise is intended for the benefit of a young woman, to whom the author urges the utility of this branch of learning: ‘Vous pouvés vous trouver dans des compagnies où une personne qui ne seroit pas instruite seroit un fort sot personnage’.
COSMOLOGY. ‘Traité de L’Univers ou Cosmographie’, manuscript in an informal hand, [mid-18th century].
COSMOLOGY. ‘Traité de L’Univers ou Cosmographie’, manuscript in an informal hand, [mid-18th century]. Decorative vignette, introductory letter, 20 full-page diagrams and text on 133 pages, including approximately 35 further neatly-drawn diagrams. In French, altogether 156 pages, quarto (226 x 180mm), plus blanks (the first leaf tipped onto guards). 18th-century calf gilt (minor worming, rather rubbed and worn). A primer on cosmography for the benefit of a young female pupil, including a comparison of the various systems of the universe, from Ptolemy to Copernicus. The figures show an armillary sphere, a ‘Globe artificiel’, the Ptolemaic, Tychonic and Copernican systems, the movement of planets and comets, the ‘Tourbillons de Descartes’, the measurement of the Earth, etc. The introductory letter makes it clear that this cosmographical treatise is intended for the benefit of a young woman, to whom the author urges the utility of this branch of learning: ‘Vous pouvés vous trouver dans des compagnies où une personne qui ne seroit pas instruite seroit un fort sot personnage’.
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