JANVIER Antide. Étrennes chronométriques pour l'an 1811, ou - Lot 178

Lot 178
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JANVIER Antide. Étrennes chronométriques pour l'an 1811, ou - Lot 178
JANVIER Antide. Étrennes chronométriques pour l'an 1811, ou Précis de ce qui concerne le tems, ses divisions, ses mesures, leurs usages, etc., Paris : Chez Courcier, A. Janvier, J.-J. Paschoud ; Genève : J.-J. Paschoud, 1810. In-12 (9 x 14 cm) of 7 f., 288 p., frontispiece, hors-texte plate. Contemporary half calf, spine with faux-nerves decorated with the title and fine gilt fillets. First edition of the enlarged version given by Antide Janvier of Pierre Leroy's "Étrennes chronométriques". Janvier explains that this almanac (published between 1759 and 1761) had become so rare that he remained "twenty years in Paris without being able [to] obtain a single copy, neither in the bookshop, nor in the author's family". (p. 1). Janvier continues: "A famous artist [Berthoud] publicly regretted the loss of this work in these terms: It deserved to be printed in another format and with more detail instead of in the form of Almanac, it remains lost to art." (p. 1). Janvier therefore decided to have it reprinted "with some changes that the progress of the arts made indispensable" (p. 1). "I took the liberty of making corrections, subtractions or additions when I judged it appropriate; I substituted whole articles for those which did not seem to me to answer the exactitude and the precision which characterizes my century. [...] I have replaced the eighth part by the notice of the progress of clock-making during the eighteenth century [...]." (p. 1-2). The work offers a careful description of time in all its aspects, of its measurement with precision and the application of this measurement to the exact sciences. Janvier also adds several personal remarks and comments on the work of his contemporaries. On pages 109-113, he reprints the report of the Académie des Sciences on his planetary clock of 1788. With a frontispiece engraving (Statue of Napoleon at the Place de la Concorde) and an off-text plate. Interesting provenance: ex-libris Charles Chevalier (1804-1859), engineer-optician, known for his contribution to the invention of the daguerreotype (label engraved on the upper back cover, with his motto "Scientia Virtus Labor").
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