Traite physique et historique de l'aurore boreale. . . . Suite des memoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, Annee M.DCCXXXI. Seconde edition, revûe, & augmentee de plusieurs Eclaircissemens. by MAIRAN, Jean Jacques d'Ortous de (1678-1771) - 1754

Paris:: Imprimerie Royale, 1754., 1754. 264 x 209 mm. 4to. [xii], 570, xxii pp. Title-page vignette, headpieces, tailpieces, historiated initials, errata, 17 engraved plates, numerous tables, index. Contemporary tree calf, gilt-tooled margin on covers, elaborately gilt spine, red leather spine label, marbled end-leaves. Fine. CHOICE COPY. Second edition, first issued in 1733, this is a greatly enlarged edition of the first exhaustive treatise on the aurora borealis. Mairan attributed the phenomenon to an extension of the sun's atmosphere, which at times enveloped the earth and blended with our atmosphere. "Inquiry into the history and physics of the aurora borealis; the chapter on the relation between the aurora and the magnetic declination is of special interest." Wheeler Gift 382. There are many references to Newton, Cassini, Euler, and Descartes. The plates contain astronomical maps as well as sketches of the aurora at different times and locations. Jean Mairan, while basically a Cartesian, did incorporate some Newtonian ideas in his theories. The range of his interests, however, extended beyond mathematics and astronomy, encompassing meteorology, biology, and a range of other disciplines. He was a secretary of the Paris Academy of Sciences and belonged to the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Uppsala, the St. Petersburg Academy, and the Institute of Bologna. See: DSB, IX, pp. 33-34. REFERENCES: Honeyman 2112 (1st ed., 1733); Poggendorf, II, col. 17; Wheeler Gift, 382; Wolf, History of science and technology, 18th cent., p. 305. Harvey, A history of luminescence, pp. 258-259 contains an excellent discussion of the new material in this edition. See: Jean-Michel Faidit, Mairan et les premieres theories de l'aurore boreale, Les Presses du Midi, 2016.