La Figure De La Terre Determinee Par Les Observations De Messieurs De Maupertuis Clairaut Camus Le

by Pierre Louis Moreau De Maupertuis

$15,000 · Offered by Sophia Rare Books

First edition

Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1738. First edition, a highly important presentation copy from the author to James Stirling, of this influential work detailing the 1736 expedition to Lapland to prove Isaac Newton’s theory that Earth is flattened at the poles, not elongated as the Cassini family suggested, confirming a pear-shaped oblate spheroid Earth through geodesic measurements. Published with contributions from

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