First Edition. 4to. 266 leaves, printer’s woodcut device on the title, engraved head pieces, folded engraved plates.
Quérard I, 448.
Lalande, page 436.
Entered by Jefferson on his undated manuscript catalogue with the price
16-10.
Pierre Bouguer, 1698-1758, French mathematician and professor of hydrography, sailed with Charles Marie de la Condamine for Peru in 1735
in order to measure a degree of the meridian near the equator. Ten years were spent in this operation of which this work is
a full account.
[3804]
26
Voiage de l’Abbé Rochon aux Indes Orienteles et en Afrique pour l’Observñ des longitudes en mer.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 116, no. 9, Voyage de Rochon aux Indes Orient. et en Afrique pour l’observation des Longitudes, 8vo.
ROCHON,
Alexis Marie.
Voyages aux Indes orientales et en Afrique, pour l’Observation des Longitudes en Mer, avec une Dissertation intéressante sur
les îles célèbres de Salomon, et sur les voyages de Marion, de Surville, de la Peyrouse et de d’Antrecastreau. Par Alexis Rochon, Membre de l’Institut de France, et de la Légion d’Honneur . . . Ouvrage réduit en
un volume in-
8
o.
Avec une carte génêrale de la mer des Indes et de la mer du Sud, et de plusiers tableaux pour servir á calculer les longitudes.
Nouvelle édition. Prix broché,
6 francs.
A
Paris: Chez
l’Huillier,
1807.
8vo. 271 leaves followed by 11 folded leaves of Tables, engraved folded map at the beginning, 2 engraved plates of Tables.
Quérard VIII, 101.
Not in Lalande.
Not in Houzeau.
Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, who wrote from Paris on August 7, 1812: “J’avois eu l’honneur de vous adresser un Exemplaire de mes voyages par le moyen de M. Short qui n’a cessé dans toutes les
circonstances de me donner des marques d’une veritable affection . . .”
Jefferson replied from Monticello on December 14, 1813: “
I have had the pleasure, my dear Sir, of recieving your letter of Aug. 7. 1812. and with it a copy of your voyages for the
observations of the longitudes at sea, which I have read with great satisfaction, and pray you to accept my thanks for them.
I recieved at the same time your pamphlet on the Micrometer of rock-chrystal, the advantages of which you had shown to me
in 1785. at D
r. Franklin’s at Passy, on the telescope you gave him, which is now in my possession. the uses of this discovery at sea, as
well as with land-armaments, are so many and great, that it is wonderful to me, that in a course of 30. years, it is not yet
brought into general use. it is one of the remarkable proofs of the slowth with which improvements in the arts & sciences
advance . . .
”
The book was sent to Jefferson by David Bailie Warden, the American consul in Paris (mentioned in a letter dated from Paris November 1, 1812), through the agency of John T. Barraud of Norfolk, Va., to whom Jefferson wrote from Monticello
on December 25: “
Th: Jefferson presents mr. Barraud his respectful salutations, and his thanks for the pamphlets from m(
~
r)
Warden which have come safely to hand. he has no reason to believe any letter accompanied them, as he had before recieved
a letter on their subject from the Abbé Rochon, author of them. with his acknolegements for m
(
~
r)
Barraud’s kind care of them he prays him to recieve the assurance of his great respect.”
The receipt of the book was acknowledged by Jefferson to Warden in a letter dated from Monticello, December 29, 1813.
There is not a copy of this edition in the Library of Congress; the copy used was most kindly lent by the American Philosophical
Society, and has great interest for the student of Jefferson, as it was presented to the Society by William Short.
Alexis Marie Rochon, Abbé, 1741-1817, French astronomer and navigator. As astronomer of the navy he made
