‎Marie DUCHENE, Christine PONCHON, Olivier FEECHET, Pierre QUENTIN et Carine PLANCHON‎
‎NAPOLEON‎

‎Mécanique Philosophique, ou Analyse Raisonnée des diverses parties de la Science de l'Équilibre et du Mouvement. - [FROM NAPOLEON'S LIBRARY]‎

‎Paris, Imprimerie de la République, an VIII [i.e. 1800]. 4to. Bound in a lovely full mottled calf binding with fine, gilt ornamental borders to boards, double gilt line-borders to all edges of boards and a richly gilt spine. Spine with gilt red leather title-label and with the gilt monogram of Joséphine and Napoléon - ""JB"" - to lower spine. Neatly rebacked. With a handwritten inscription for Napoleon to title-page ""Au Citoyen Bonaparte/ premier Consul de la République francaise/ De la part du Conseil [de]/ L'Ecole Polythechnique"", with a signature underneath and the stamp of the Ecole Polytechnique. The inscription is slighly cropped at the outer margin. A bit of brownspotting here and there. (4), VII, (1), 477, (3) pp. ‎

‎First edition, original offprint from Journal Polytechnique, Tome III, Cahiers 7 & 8, of Prony's magnum opus ""Mécanique phlilosophique"". The three parts here are all that appeared, as the planned two parts announced on the verso of the extra title-page never appeared. A truly splendid copy from Napoleon's library, with the gilt monogram of him and Joséphine from the library at Malmaison and with a presentation-inscription for Napoléon, which is rare. Books from the library at Malmaison do occasionally appear on the market, although they are rare. They are usually taken to be mainly Joséphine's, as she spent more time there. This, however, is a rare exception. First, we know that Napoléon actually did spend time at Malmaison at the time that he was given the present volume, around 1800, second, it bears an inscription for him, which is rare, determining for a fact that this was one of his books, not Joséphine's. Together with the Tuileries, Malmaison was the French government's headquarters from 1800 to 1802, exactly the time that Napoleon will have been given the present book and incorporated it in his library. Many of the books at the Malmaison library were books on things like gardening that Joséphine cared a great deal about. These were clearly her books. And some of the books, like the present, were clearly those of Napoleon himself. Napoleon was a voracious reader and he spent much time in his library studying his books. He had a personal librarian, always travelled with books, and took pride in constructing portable libraries as well as the rooms for his own actual library. On 9 July 1800, he gave the commission for a study to be built in place of the three small rooms situated on the south corner pavilion of Malmaison. Fontaine removed the partition walls and commissioned the Jacob brothers to make the teak woodwork. On 18 September, Fontaine wrote: “Everything is now in place, and even though the First Consul found that the room looked like a church sacristy, he was nevertheless forced to admit that it would have been difficult to do better in such an unsuitable space”. The paintings of the great ancient and classical authors which surround Apollo and Minerva on the ceiling were probably executed by Lafitte. Napoleon had been an avid reader since he was quite young, and when he began studying at the École Militaire in Paris, he continued to read classics, literature, and philosophy, as he would throughout his life, but he also read more scientifically and strategically aimed books. “His appetite for reading books continued as he rose in power. In 1798, about to depart on the Egyptian campaign, he gave Bourrienne a list of books he wanted in his camp library. These included works in Sciences and Arts (e.g., Treatise on Fortifications), Geography and Travels (e.g., Cook’s Voyages), History (e.g., Thucydides, Frederick II), Poetry (e.g., Ossian, Tasso, Ariosto), Novels (e.g., Voltaire, Héloïse, Werther and 40 volumes of “English novels”), and Politics and Morals (the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, etc.)” (Shannon Selin: Bonaparte the Book Worm), giving us a great insight into his preferences at the time. Prony, with his great Mechanical Philosophy, will have fallen perfectly amongst these great writers, when Napoleon returned to Malmaison, combining politics, science, and philosophy. It is not difficult to see how Napoleon will have been intrigued by mechanical philosophy, which is a form of natural philosophy that compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism. Mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of Early Modern Europe, and one of the first expositions of universal mechanism is found in the opening passages of Hobbes’s Leviathan. Prony, in the present work, argues that mechanical principles in the practical arts themselves call for philosophical analysis. Baron Gaspard de Prony (1755-1839) was a French mathematician and engineer. He was educated at the Benedictine College at Toissei in Doubs. From there, he entered the École des Ponts et Chaussés in 1776, where he studied engineering until graduating in 1779. “In 1780 he became an engineer with the École des Ponts et Chaussés and after three years in a number of different regions of France he returned to the École des Ponts et Chaussés in Paris 1783. This was the same year he published his first major work in the Académie des Sciences on the forces on arches. Monge was impressed with this paper and realised that de Prony was someone of great potential. In 1785 de Prony visited England on a project to obtain an accurate measurement of the relative positions of the Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory. Two years later he was promoted to inspector at the École des Ponts et Chaussés. Around this time he was involved with the work on the Louis XVI Bridge in Paris which is now called the Pont de la Concorde. Further promotion in 1790 was followed the next year by his being appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the École des Ponts et Chaussés. This promotion was as a result of the opening of the Louis XVI Bridge. Also around 1791 de Prony was working on geometry with Pierre Girard. Then in 1792, de Prony began a major task of producing logarithmic and trigonometric tables, the Cadastre. With the assistance of Legendre, Carnot and other mathematicians, and between 70 to 80 assistants, the work was undertaken over a period of years, being completed in 1801. […] In 1794 the École Centrale des Travaux Publics was founded by and was directed by Carnot and Monge. It was renamed the École Polytechnique in 1795 and de Prony was certainly one of the main lectures by this time. He is listed among the first teachers at the university […] In 1798 de Prony refused Napoleon's request that he join his army of invasion to Egypt. Fourier, Monge and Malus had agreed to be part of the expeditionary force and Napoleon was angry that de Prony would not come. It did mean that de Prony was to fail to receive the honours he deserved from Napoleon but de Prony's wife was a close friend of Joséphine and this probably saved de Prony from anything worse. In 1798 de Prony achieved his ambition of being appointed director of the École des Ponts et Chaussés. His desire for this post was almost certainly a main reason for his refusing to join Napoleon. As director he began producing a number of important texts on mathematical physics.” (From University of St. Andrews scientific biographies). The present book and its presentation to Napoleon comes from this time, linking the two even closer. After Napoleon was defeated, the reorganization in France included a reorganization of the École Polytechnique, which was closed during 1816. De Prony lost his position as professor there and was not part of the reorganization committee. However, as soon as the school reopened, de Prony was asked to be an examiner so he continued his connection yet only had to work one month per year.‎

‎Voyage... envoye a la Recherce de la Perouse. 2 tomes + atlas. - [GIFT-COPY, BY ORDER OF NAPOLEON]‎

‎Paris, 1807 (atlas) - 1808 (text). 2 large 4to + 1 folio. All three volumes bound in contemporary half calf with gilding to spines - text volumes uniform. TEXT: Volume 1 with a split front hinge, but block still tight. A patch of paper missing from back board. Both volumes with some edge wear and bumped corners. Old paper labels to inside of front boards, and a stamp to half-titles and title-pages. A bit of brownspotting, but mostly marginal. Overall, most text-leaves are clean and bright. The plates in vol. 1 have some, mostly marginal, brownspotting. Both volumes with wide margins. Some of the text is printed on blue-ish paper. (4), LVI, 704 pp. & 32 folded engraved plates + (4), VIII, 691 pp. & 1 folded plate. Many tables with astronomical observations. In all 33 folded plates. ATLAS: Wear to extremities and bumped corners. Inner front hinge re-enforced. Top right blank corner of title-page repaired, far from affecting text. A stamp to title-page. A bit of brownspotting, mostly marginal. The last ab. 10 maps with a damp stain in the middle. The reast are very nice and bright. 4 (title-page + contents-leaf) pp. & 39 maps and charts, 29 of which are double-page. Fully complete with all 33 folded plates in the text-volumes and all 39 maps and charts in the atlas-volume. A contemporary handwritten note to the title-page of the atlas stating that THE COPY WAS GIVEN TO ADMIRAL VAN DOCKUM AT THE ORDER OF NAPOLEON I. (""à Mr. le Conte-Admiral Joost Van Dockum,/ par ordre de Sm l'Empereur Napoléon 1e."")‎

‎A gift-copy, ordered by Napoleon I - for the Danish admiral that had earned himself great personal admiration from Napoleon - of the first edition of this magnificent travel account, which is famous for its exploration of the Australian coast while searching for the lost Pérouse expedition that had vanished in Oceania.The excellent maps and charts of this foundational publication are made by the expedition's first hydrographical engineer, C.F Beautemps-Beaupré, who is now regarded as the father of modern French hydrography, due to his work on the present expedition. The charts published here, in the atlas volume under the title ""Atlas du Voyage de Bruny-Dentrecasteaux"", in 1807 were very detailed and remained the source of the English charts of the area for many years. Those of Van Diemen's Land were the exceptionally detailed and have contributed greatly to our knowledge of the area. In September 1791, the French Assembly decided to send an expedition in search of Jean-François de La Pérouse, who had not been heard of since leaving Botany Bay in March 1788. Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was selected to command this expedition and was given a frigate, Recherche with Lieutenant Jean-Louis d'Hesmity-d'Auribeau as his second-in-command, Rossel among the other officers, and Beautemps-Beaupré as hydrographer of the expedition.On September 28, the expedition left Brest. The plan of the voyage was to proceed to New Holland in Australia, to sight Cape Leeuwin, then to hug the shore closely all the way to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), inspecting every possible harbour in a rowing boat, and then to sail for the Friendly Islands (Tonga) via the northern cape of New Zealand (allowing gardener Félix Delahaye to collect live breadfruit plants for transport to the French West Indies). After that, D'Entrecasteaux was to follow Pérouse's intended route in the Pacific. However, when Bruni d'Entrecasteaux reached Table Bay, Cape Town on 17 January 1792, he heard a report that Captain John Hunter (later to be Governor of New South Wales) had recently seen - off the Admiralty Islands - canoes manned by natives wearing French uniforms and belts. Although Hunter denied this report, and although the Frenchmen heard of the denial, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux determined to make directly to the Admiralty Islands, nowadays part of Papua New Guinea, taking water and refreshing his crew at Van Diemen's Land. On 20 April 1792, that land was in sight, and three days later the ships anchored in a harbour, which he named Recherche Bay. For the next five weeks, until 28 May 1792, the Frenchmen carried out careful boat explorations which revealed in detail the beautiful waterways and estuaries in the area.Beautemps-Beaupré, while surveying the coasts with Lieutenant Crétin, discovered that Adventure Bay was on an island, separated from the mainland by a fine navigable channel. On May 16, d'Entrecasteaux commenced to sail the ships through the channel and succeeded in 12 days. Port Esperance, the Huon River, and other features were discovered, named, and charted, the admiral's names being given to the channel (D'Entrecasteaux Channel) and the large island (Bruny Island) separated by it from the mainland.On May 28, 1792 the ships sailed into the Pacific to search for La Pérouse. On June 17, they arrived off the Isle of Pines, south of New Caledonia. From there, d'Entrecasteaux sailed northward along the western coast of New Caledonia. (The Bruni d'Entrecasteaux reefs at the northwestern end of the New Caledonia Barrier Reef are named for him.) He then passed the Solomon Islands along their southern or western coasts, sailed through Saint George's Channel between New Ireland and New Britain, and on July 28 sighted the south-east coast of the Admiralty Islands. After that he set sail for Ambon (in modern-day Indonesia), where his ships replenished their stores.Leaving Amboina on October 14, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux made for Cape Leeuwin, the south-western extremity of Australia, to carry out his original instructions of searching southern New Holland for La Pérouse. On December 6, land was sighted near Cape Leeuwin, and named ""D'Entrecasteaux Point"". They ended up sailing further east and penetrated numerous islands and dangerous shoals, to which they gave the name ""D'Entrecasteaux Islands"" (later changed to the Recherche Archipelago).After a violent storm in December, the ships continued eastward to the head of the Great Australian Bight, and on January 4, 1793, Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was forced to leave the coast at a position near Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Reef and sail direct to Van Diemen's Land (this decision was unfortunate, for if he had continued his examination of the southern coast of New Holland, he would have made all the geographical discoveries that fell to the lot of Bass and Flinders a few years later. If that had been the case, a French ""Terre Napoléon"" might well have been a fact).The ships anchored in Recherche Bay on 22 January, and the expedition spent five weeks in that area, watering the ships, refreshing the crews, and carrying out explorations into both natural history and geography. Beautemps-Beaupré, in company with other officers, surveyed the northern extensions to Storm Bay - the western extension was found to be a mouth of a river which received the name Rivière du Nord (it was renamed the Derwent River a few months later by the next visitor to this area).On February 28, d'Entrecasteaux sailed from Van Diemen's Land towards the Friendly Islands, sighting New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands en route. At the Friendly Islands, he found that the natives remembered Cook and Bligh well enough, but knew nothing of La Pérouse. He then sailed back to New Caledonia, where he anchored at Balade. The vain search for La Pérouse then resumed with Santa Cruz, then along the southern coasts of the Solomon Islands, the northern parts of the Louisiade Archipelago, through the Dampier Strait, along the northern coast of New Britain and the southern coast of the Admiralty Islands, and thence north of New Guinea to the Moluccas.By this time, the affairs of the expedition had become almost desperate, largely because the officers were ardent royalists and the crews equally ardent revolutionaries. Kermadec had died of phthisis in Balade harbour, and on 21 July 1793, d'Entrecasteaux himself died of scurvy, off the Hermits.Commands were re-arranged, with Auribeau taking charge of the expedition, with Rossel in Kermadec's place. The new chief took the ships to Surabaya. Here it was learned that a republic had been proclaimed in France, and on February 18, 1794, Auribeau handed his vessels to the Dutch authorities so that the new French Government could not profit by them. Auribeau died a month later, and Rossel sailed from Java in January 1795 on board a Dutch ship, arriving at Table Bay in April 1795. There his ship sailed unexpectedly with the expedition's papers, leaving him behind, but this vessel was captured by the British. Rossel then took passage on a brig-of-war, but this too was captured by the British. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, all the papers of the expedition were returned to Rossel, who was thus able to publish the present narrative of the whole enterprise. JOST VAN DOCKUM (1753 -1834) was a famous Danish naval officer. He started out as a naval cadet and midshipman in 1765, advanced to second lieutenant 1773, premier lieutenant in 1781, captain lieutenant in 1784 and captain in 1796. In 1798 Dockum became chief of a frigate used as a watch ship in Helsinore and here got caught up in a conflict with an English chief of a convoy, about the extradition of another Danish ship. Due to his steadfast and tactful handling of the situation, the case was resolved and battle was avoided, earning him great respect and a flattering letter from Crown Prince Frederik. In 1799, Dockum was sent out as chief commander of the frigate ""The Mermaid"" to join the Commander Captain Steen Bille's force in the Mediterranean, whose task it was to ensure the uninterrupted travel of Danish merchant ships. Even though Denmark was neutral and thus sought after for shipping goods, these Danish ships still faced problems from both privateers, who didn't necessarily respect the neutral flag, and from English war ships, which demanded the right to search Danish ships - something that the Danish chiefs had explicit orders to prevent. Van Dockum turned out to be exactly the right man at the right place, at the right time. In December 1799, in Gibraltar, he was forced to order firing against English vessels that attempted to search his convoy. For a short while, it even looked as if a heavy battle was forced to follow, but with his calm and assured conduct, Van Dockum made the English reconsider, and the case was handled with diplomacy in stead. Later the same year, a similar situation occurred, which Van Docum handled in the same admirable manner. His impressive conduct was clearly noticed high up in the hierarchy. Denmark, however, could not remain neutral, and in the beginning of 1801, the Danish forces were called back from the Mediterranean. When the English navy arrived in Øresund in 1807 and afterwards bombarded Copenhagen, Van Docken was given command of the battery of ships, Preøvesten. In 1809, he was sent to Schelden to serve in the French navy" upon his arrival, he took command over the line ship Pultusk, under Vice Admiral Édouard Jacques Burgues de Missiessy.Napoleon's plan was to form a naval port of the first rank, a goal that he pursued zealously. The English, of course, tried to conquer the station. It was here that Van Docken gained international fame. At the failed attacks by the English and with his obviously skilled maneuvers and his amazing abilities as an organizer, he gained the special attention of Emperor Napoleon I and earned special recognition for the Danish marine as such. He stayed at his post for more than three years, was appointed French Admiral, Knight of Dannebrog and an officer of the Legion of Honour. He was invited to Napoleon's feasts was showered with attention, when he visited Napoleon in Paris. He stayed in French service until 1812, and Napoleon has presumably given him the present work, when it appeared. ‎

‎La vie Napoleon racontée par Napoleon / exemplaire numéroté‎

‎Club français du livre 1955 in8. 1955. reliure pleine toile editeur. 276 pages. Bon état‎

‎Napoléon Bonaparte - Correspondance générale publiée par la Fondation Napoléon - Tome 7 - Tilsit , l'apogée de l'empire - 1807‎

‎Paris Fayard 2010 Petit In4 ( 25 x 16 cm ) - cartonnage de l'éditeur - 1588 pages ‎

‎Bon ‎

‎Napoléon et l'Espagne 1799-1808 (Deux volumes)‎

‎ 1930 Paris Librairie Félix Alcan 1930 Deux volumes in° broché XLIV+406 et 494 Pages A22‎

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