MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759). La Figure de la Terre, Paris: l'Imprimerie Royale, 1738, 8° (195 x 123mm.), FIRST EDITION, engraved headpiece, one folding map, 9 folding plates (two stamps to title, lower margin of title neatly repaired, occasional light spotting), contemporary polished calf, spine decorated in gilt, contrasting label lettered in gilt (front joints cracked but cords firmly holding, corners bumped). [Babson 94; Norman 1458; Sotheran I, 2910].

Details

MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759). La Figure de la Terre, Paris: l'Imprimerie Royale, 1738, 8° (195 x 123mm.), FIRST EDITION, engraved headpiece, one folding map, 9 folding plates (two stamps to title, lower margin of title neatly repaired, occasional light spotting), contemporary polished calf, spine decorated in gilt, contrasting label lettered in gilt (front joints cracked but cords firmly holding, corners bumped). [Babson 94; Norman 1458; Sotheran I, 2910].

Lot Essay

"A famous book on the applanation of the earth at the poles. Maupertius adopted and explained Newton's propositions on attraction and on the figure of the earth; and he conducted an expedition to Lapland, for the measurement of an arc of the meredian, the result of which was fatal to the Cassinian hypothesis." (Babson)

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