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FRANÇOIS-MICHEL-CÈSAR LE TELLIER, MARQUIS DE COURTANVAUX (1718-1781)
Journal du Voyage de M. le Marquis de Courtanvaux, sur la frégate l'Aurore, pour assayer par ordre de l'Academie, plusieurs instrumens relatifs à la Longitude. Mis en ordre par M. Pingré ... de concert avec M. Messier. Paris: de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1768. 4° (272 x 210mm). Largely unopened, front blank, 2pp. errata. Engraved frontispiece, 1 folding engraved map, 4 folding engraved plates. (1 1/2 inch tear from lower margin into image area of plate facing p.108). Contemporary half calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands, each band flanked on either side by a pair of gilt fillets, red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, lettered in gilt, uncut.
A VERY FINE COPY OF THIS ACCOUNT OF AN IMPORTANT PRACTICAL TRIAL WHICH FORMED PART OF THE RACE TO PERFECT A METHOD OF MEASURING LONGITUDE. Courtanvaux had been destined for a military career until ill-health forced him to resign in 1745. He subsequently took up the the study of the natural sciences, and was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1764. The present work is his report of a voyage in the frigate l'Aurore - a vessel that Courtanvaux fitted out at his own expense to allow for the accurate assessment under everyday conditions of the various competitors for the prize offered by the Académie (for the first successful method of accurately measuring longitude). The main contender assessed was the Horloger du roi from 1754, Pierre Le Roy. He had invented a completely original marine chronometer in the 1750s, which he perfected over the next decade and presented to Louis XV in 1766. In 1767 Le Roy entered his machine, which "embodied all the principles upon which later marine chronometers were constructed" (Norman), in the competition. The present voyage between Le Havre and Amsterdam was the first practical trial to which it was subjected. Le Roy was awarded a double prize in 1768, for his chronometer and for his memoir describing it. NMM I, 1149a; cf. Norman 1335 (a précis of the present work).
Journal du Voyage de M. le Marquis de Courtanvaux, sur la frégate l'Aurore, pour assayer par ordre de l'Academie, plusieurs instrumens relatifs à la Longitude. Mis en ordre par M. Pingré ... de concert avec M. Messier. Paris: de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1768. 4° (272 x 210mm). Largely unopened, front blank, 2pp. errata. Engraved frontispiece, 1 folding engraved map, 4 folding engraved plates. (1 1/2 inch tear from lower margin into image area of plate facing p.108). Contemporary half calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands, each band flanked on either side by a pair of gilt fillets, red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, lettered in gilt, uncut.
A VERY FINE COPY OF THIS ACCOUNT OF AN IMPORTANT PRACTICAL TRIAL WHICH FORMED PART OF THE RACE TO PERFECT A METHOD OF MEASURING LONGITUDE. Courtanvaux had been destined for a military career until ill-health forced him to resign in 1745. He subsequently took up the the study of the natural sciences, and was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1764. The present work is his report of a voyage in the frigate l'Aurore - a vessel that Courtanvaux fitted out at his own expense to allow for the accurate assessment under everyday conditions of the various competitors for the prize offered by the Académie (for the first successful method of accurately measuring longitude). The main contender assessed was the Horloger du roi from 1754, Pierre Le Roy. He had invented a completely original marine chronometer in the 1750s, which he perfected over the next decade and presented to Louis XV in 1766. In 1767 Le Roy entered his machine, which "embodied all the principles upon which later marine chronometers were constructed" (Norman), in the competition. The present voyage between Le Havre and Amsterdam was the first practical trial to which it was subjected. Le Roy was awarded a double prize in 1768, for his chronometer and for his memoir describing it. NMM I, 1149a; cf. Norman 1335 (a précis of the present work).
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