Histoire de l'Astronomie (Six Volumes)

Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre

Paris : Courcier, 1817, 1819, 1821, 1827

[An important early work in the history of Astronomy] 6 volume complete set, printed 1817, 1819, 1821, 1827. 26 x 20 cm.  Bound in mid-19th century cloth.  Gold spine lettering.  Some chipping, with minor loss, at the spine extremities. Numerous folding plates.  Regrettable dampstaining throughout. Damp spots on some of the covers. Frontispiece portrait in v.6 by Desmoulins. *Sold with all faults.*   Sotheran I, 995: 'This important work is the first history on a strictly scientific basis, freed from all mythological conceptions and errors.' 

"Delambre's 'Histoire de l'Astronomie' is a work without parallel in any of the sciences. It is a technical work, written - as he said - 'mainly for astronomers, and mathematicians in general'. Unquestionably the six-volumes 'Histoire' is the greatest full-scale technical history of any branch of science ever written by a single individual. It sets a standard very few historians of science may ever achieve." (I.B. Cohen in DSB IV, 17).   Contents: v.1-2. Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne, v.3. Histoire de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age, v.4-5. Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne, v.6. Histoire de l'Astronomie au Dix-Huitieme Siecle.  Refs: Houzeau & Lancaster 34-37; Honeyman Sale 845, 846.
This is an oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.