Sur la Figure de la Terre, et sur les moyens que l'astronomie & la géographie fournissent pour la d'eterminer.

Paris, l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1735. 4to (25.6 x 19.8 cm). pp. 153-164, with three text engravings, in: Histoire de l' Académie royale des Sciences, année MDCCXXXIII. Avec les mémoires de mathématique & de physique, pour la même année. Contemporary full calf. Spine with five raised bands. Rich gilt compartments and two morocco labels with gilt title. Boards with double gilt-lined borders. Marbled endpapers. = Three years before the publication of the similarly titled work in which he proved that the earth was flattened at the poles, Pier Louis Moreau De Maupertuis (1698-1759) published an outline of the problem, and his method how to solve it. Subsequently, the French gouvernment send out two expeditions - one lead by De Maupertuis - to make exact measurements of two one degree arcs of longitude, one near the equator, and one in northern Scandinavia. This proved to be essential: De Maupertuis found a factual basis for Newton's statement that the earth should be flattened at the poles to be right, and the opposite view, held by the Cassini's, to be wrong. "His position as the leading Continental Newtonian was confirmed the following year (1733) by his "Sur la figure de la terre et sure les moyens que l’astronomie et la géographie fournissent pour la déterminer" (DSB). It can be said that the Maupertuis 1738 paper is not complete without this one, which formalized the problem, and set the first and final attempt to solve it into motion. Contained in the academy's Histoire, along other papers (e.g., by Cassini) on astronomical, physical, and other scientific observations and theories. Spine much rubbed, front board detached, contents, however, very good, clean. DSB IX, pp. 186-189.