Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1754, in-4°, (12) nn pp + 570 pp + xxii pp (index) + 17 engraved plates with a total of 36 illustrations (complete), bound in contemporary full calf, raised gilt spine, red leather title label on spine, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers, triple gilt fillet on both covers, fine/good binding but with some restorations at extremeties (headcap, corners), fine crisp interior. Second and best edition of the earliest exhaustive treatise on the aurora borealis, whose height the author estimates as above 100 geographical miles, and which he supposes to be zodiacal light that has come into contact with the atmosphere. (Sotheran N°11308).
MAIRAN Jean Jacques Dortous de ( 1678 - 1771 ) - Edmond HALLEY [ ] :
Reference : 43238
" Paris, chez Durand, Libraire, au Griffon, 1747, in-8°, 16 x 9,5 cm, (12)nn pp (with engraved allagorical frontispiece ) + 360 pp (complete), bound in contemporary full calf, raised gilt spine, marbled endpapers, edges painted red, some wear at extremeties but still a fine copy. First edition. Text in French. Contains the biographies and bibliographies of e.g. the medical doctor François Petit , the chemist Nicolas Lemery and the english astronomer Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742). [ science ; biography ; astronomy ; cosmology ; comets ; ]."