Account of Voyage to Accurately Measure Longitude

"Journal du Voyage de M. Le Marquis de Courtanvaux, sur la Fregate l'Aurore, pour Essayer par Ordre de l'Academie...", Messier, Charles

This book follows the three-month voyage undertaken by François-César Le Tellier de Courtanvaux in 1767 to test marine chronometers, for which the Academy of Sciences was offering a prize. As a member of the Academy of Sciences, De Courtanvaux financed the voyage and had a ship built for the occasion, named Aurore. Aboard the ship were Alexandre Guy Pingré, an astronomer and naval geographer, Charles Messier, an astronomer, and Julien Le Roy, a watchmaker who had built several chronometers to test. Le Roy was competing against François Berthoud to build an instrument that could precisely measure longitude and succeeded in winning the prize from the Academy of Sciences. This volume includes a map of their route between Paris and Amsterdam, two engravings of the Aurore, two engravings of instruments tested on the ship, and an engraving of a building used to distill sea water. Quarto; viii; 316 pp.; [3 pp.]; four engraved plates; one folding map. Hardbound in quarter red leather with marbled paper-covered boards and gilt titling on spine.

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Condition: B+

The map has a crisp impression with minor offsetting and a few spots of foxing. The plates have light foxing and some printer's ink residue. The text also has light, scattered foxing. There is an engraved bookplate from a previous owner on the verso of the title page. The covers are heavily worn and scuffed with bumped corners. The spine is also heavily worn with some cracking.