Beschreibung:

INSTITUT DE FRANCE, Académie des Sciences. Recueil de mémoires, rapports et documents relatifs à l’observation du passage de Vénus sur le Soleil. Paris: Firmin-Didot-puis Gauthier-Villard, 1876-1885. Scarce first edition of one of the first publications on astronomical photography, with original photographs mounted as plates. A fine, fresh example of extensive observations made for the 1874 transit of Venus in front of the Sun. The passage of Venus between the Sun and the Earth is the rarest predictable astronomical phenomenon, occurring twice every 113 years with an eight-year interval between the two instances. This astronomical phenomenon has been historically a crucial means by which to measure the universe, and also determine Earth’s longitude. The 1874 event, detailed in the present work, was only visible from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Several nations sent observation teams to study the phenomenon in situ, and it documents the efforts of the French scientists who set up observational stations at Peking, Saigon, Yokohama, Nagasaki and Kobe in the northern sphere, and on the Isles of St. Paul and Campbell, as well as in Noumea, in the southern hemisphere. Besides astronomical observations, the reports also include research on the climate, zoology, botany and geology of several remote territories. These are particularly detailed in the cases of the Isle of St. Paul, the southern Indian ocean, Reunion Island, and the Isle of Campbell, to which two whole volumes (one of text and one of plates) are dedicated. Besides recording an epic scientific voyage, the work is also one of the earliest to use photography to record astronomical observations. Previously, in 1769, unsuccessful attempts were made at measuring the parallax with the aid of traditional telescopic lenses during the transit of Venus. With the subsequent transit of 1874, a particular form of photography called ‘photogenic revolver’ was introduced to by the French team to remedy the deficiencies of previous methods. The entirety of the last volume is dedicated to the results of these photographic observations. A 79-pp. Annexe was published 5 years later, in 1890, and is often not included in the sets we could trace, as here. Houzeau and Lancaster 12291. 3 volumes bound in 7, quarto (280 x 230mm). Half titles, fly-titles, numerous lithographic plates, some coloured and others folding, bound thus: first vol. (vol. I) with 7 plates; second to third vols (vol. II) comprising 54 lithographs, 2 more than called for by Houzeau and Lancaster, and 10 plates of mounted photographs; fourth to seventh vols (vol. III) comprising 76 lithographic plates; some text-illustrations, a few full-page (one large folding geological map with 190mm tear but without loss, very occasional light spotting). Contemporary quarter morocco over marbled boards, spines with raised bands, green and brown morocco gilt labels (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance : traces of hand-writing offset to some titles and half-titles.