Bailly.Hist..Astronomie Ancienne [Moderne]

Bailly (Jean Sylvain) Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne [Moderne]...,together 2 works in 4 vol., first edition, 3 folding engraved plates in 'Ancienne', 18 in 'Moderne', decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces, very occasional light browning or foxing, contemporary bookplates, handsome uniform contemporary catspaw calf, spines gilt in compartments with red and green morocco labels, a little rubbed, slight worming to joints, 4to, Paris, 1775-79-82.

***"These tomes represent [Bailly's] most lasting achievement ...and made him a triple academician, the only Frenchman besides Bernard de Fontenelle to achieve this distinction." DSB The French Revolution catapulted Bailly into public affairs. Elected deputy from Paris to the Estates-General, he was elected president of the Third Estate in May 1789, led the famous proceedings in the Tennis Court in June of that year, and, immediately after the storming of the Bastille, became the first mayor of Paris under the newly adopted system of the Commune (to November 1791). The dispersal by the National Guard, under his orders, of the riotous assembly in the Champ-de-Mars on July 17th 1791, and the resultant massacre, led to his downfall and he was subsequently guillotined, where his victims had fallen, on the Champ-de-Mars in November 1791..