Milestones of Science Books

LE MORVAN, Charles.

Carte photographique et systématique de la Lune.

Paris: Librairie astronomique G. Thomas [Publication subventionnée par l'Académie des sciences de Paris], 1914.

1st Edition. No Binding. Very Good. Item #002257

Large folio (505 x 385 mm). 6 fascicles comprising 48 photographic plates in heliogravures by L. Massard after the photographs by the author, taken at the Observatoire de Paris between 1902 and 1907. The plates are numbered I to XXIV and I-A to XXIV-A. The size of the heliogravure area is 320 x 255 mm. Each of plates I to XXIV with original transparent tissue key overlay with outlines and captions of lunar features, the remaining plates with tissue guards only, partly with outlines drawn by hand in pencil. The plates loose as issued in the printed fascicle wrappers. The wrappers partly split at folds and repaired. A few plates chipped, a few plates little soiled or tanned at margins. Accompanied by a text volume: Description sommaire et coordonnées rectilignes des principlales formations représentées sur les planches, 4to (312 x 240 mm), iv, 66, 14 pp. Text volume in original printed wrappers, little browned throughout. Plates and text volume housed in a custom-made clamshell box. Altogether an outstanding, unsophisticated copy, complete with the text volume. ----

In his photographic and systematic Map of the Moon, the astronomer Charles Le Morvan (1865-1933) reused the original clichés of the l'Atlas photographique de la Lune by Maurice Loewy (1833-1907) and Pierre Puiseux (1855-1928), first published between 1896 and 1910 by the Paris Observatory. Le Morvan already participated in the production of the Loewy/Puiseux Atlas with own lunar observations and the preparation of glass clichés, especially after the death of Loewy in October 1907. "Le Morvan joined the staff of the Paris Observatory in 1890, where he spent his entire working life. In 1914 Morvan edited the Carte Photographique de la Lune which contained copies of photographs taken from the Atlas Photographique de la Lune. The finance for this work had come from a grant of 4000 francs from the Bonaparte Fund of the Paris Academy of Sciences." (S. Hughes, Cathers of the Light, 2012, p.188).
Complete sets of this work are rare. Linda Hall Library in Kansas City has the full copy of the 48 sheets, the University of Arizona in Tucson only has the first 24 sheets, the Paris Observatory has the entire book, the Universidade de Sao Paulo, and the Universiteit Utrecht, unspecified for the last two.
A supplement, published in 1926 and which contained 6 plates of the lunar disk at different times (first quarter, full moon, etc.) at a smaller scale, is not included here. - Visit our website to see more images!

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