DESPIAU, Louis.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Description et Usage des Globes, pour les Écoles et les Pensions: First edition of this astronomical guide for students. This copy is inscribed "Fanny de Chasteigner Le 8 Aout 1814. Somerstown London" on the front free endpaper.Many French émigrés settled in Somers Town after fleeing the Revolution. A newly built suburb on the northern fringes of London, the area was also home to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and the birthplace of Mary Shelley in 1797.By the early years of the 19th century, several women had achieved broad recognition as astronomical practitioners. In 1787, Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) became the first woman to receive a salary for her scientific work, while Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was encouraged in her studies of the Principia by John Playfair of the University of Edinburgh. Somerville, in particular, roughly aligns with the publication of Despiau's guide: in the mid-1790s she was secretly studying Euclid (and learning French). In 1835, both women were elected the first female honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society.Despiau appears to have been a professor of mathematics and physics in Paris: it is possible that he followed a similar trajectory to other French émigrés after the revolution.

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