every ten thousandth part, according to the new centesimal Division. Also, three new tables of Logarithms to twenty, forty
eight, and sixty one Places of Figures: and several other Tables, useful in ascertaining the Longitude at Sea, etc. With a
prefatory Discourse on the nature of Logarithms and the Use of the Tables; translated from the
French by D. B. Warden, Secretary to General Armstrong, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, Paris. By Francis Callet. A stereotype Edition, engraved, cast and printed, by
Firmin Didot.
Paris: printed by
Firmin Didot, for
W. Swan & S. Allinson,
New York; and sold by them, and by the principal booksellers in the
United States.
1809.
8vo. Contains a prefatory discourse, tables of logarithms and 1 folded engraved plate. Dedicated by the publisher,
Firmin Didot, to Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. The
dedication, dated from Paris, 25 October 1807, reads:
Permit me to recommend to your patronage, the following work, the utility of which, as applicable to the arts and to general
science, you can so justly appreciate.
With that respect and esteem due to you as a profound Scholar and an enlightened Magistrate . . .
Sent to Jefferson by the translator, David Bailie Warden, the American consul in Paris, who wrote from that city on June 28,
1809: “I had the honor of writing to you, by Mr Coles, and of sending you several parts of Humboldts’ work on South America. A volume,
of the society of Arcueil, mentioned in his letter, was not then received. I now send it, accompanied with a copy of Callet’s
Logarithms, which Mr Didot bids me offer you. The tables are more correct than any others that have yet appeared. Indeed they
are said to be free from error. The price is not yet fixed, but it will be less than that of any other Collection of a similar
kind. It is a work which will be extremely useful to navigators, and those employed in Mathematical Calculations. M
r. Didot would wish that you would take the trouble of making it known in the United States. I was obliged, in the Introduction,
for the sake of clearness, to confine myself to a very literal translation . . .”
Four months later, on October 27, Warden wrote: “. . . I hope you received the copy of Callets’ Logarithms, dedicated to you, and of which I prepared the Introduction. It
will give me great pleasure to send you any Book or article you may wish to possess . . .”
Jefferson referred to these tables in a letter to Dr. Robert Patterson dated from Monticello September 11, 1811: “
. . . The French, I believe have given up their Decadary Calendar, but it does not appear that they retire from the centesimal
division of the quadrant. on the contrary M. Borda has calculated, according to that division, new trigonometrical tables,
not yet I believe printed. in the excellent tables of Callet, lately published by Didot in stereotype, he has given a table
of Logarithmic Sines & Tangents for the hundred degrees of the quadrant, abridged from Borda’s manuscript. but he has given
others for the sexagesimal division, which being for every 10″ thro’ the whole table, are more convenient than Hutton’s, Scherwin’s
or any of their predecessors . . .
”
In Jefferson’s dated manuscript catalogue this book is placed in the next following chapter.
Jean François Callet, 1744-1798, French professor of mathematics and hydrography. The first edition of his work on logarithms was published in
1783.
For
David Bailie Warden, 1772-1845, at times the American consul in Paris, and who had much correspondence with Jefferson, see the Index.
Robert Patterson, 1743-1824, to whom Jefferson’s letter was addressed, was born in Ireland and emigrated to America in 1768. He became professor
of mathematics at Pennsylvania University and was a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Firmin Didot, 1764-1836, in this book revived the process of stereotyping, for which he had coined this name.
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