Details

Subjects:

Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Astronomy -- France -- Observations.
Vernal equinox.
France.

Form/Genre:

Fragments (object portions)
Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, European.
Observations.

Language:

French, with a note in Italian.

Biography/History:

First director of the Paris Observatory, 1671-1712.

Summary:

Observations of the vernal equinox made at the Paris Observatory (l'observatoire royal) on 21 March 1703 and notes on earlier equinoxes and the implications for year length and calendar reform, written on a gathering that has been removed from a larger manuscript (18th-century (?) foliation 81-90, 19th-century pencil pagination 301-319). A note in a contemporary Italian hand attributes the manuscript to Cassini and records that it was sent from Paris in May (f. 1r).

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (Kraus).
Sold by Robinson Brothers (London), 1945.
Appeared in an H. P. Kraus (New York) catalog.
Formerly owned by John D. Stanitz (Cleveland, Ohio), Ms. 13.
Acquired by Lawrence J. Schoenberg with other Stanitz manuscripts, Sept. 1997.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2016.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 64 (LJS 182).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 182.

Contributor:

Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872, former owner.
Stanitz, John D., former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

746874286

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page