.jpg?w=1)
Details
LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon, marquis de (1749-1827). Autograph manuscript signed, 19 December 1808, a detailed report on the work of Etienne-Louis Malus on double-refraction of light in crystalline substances, REFERRING TO HUYGENS AND NEWTON, the paper also signed by the mineralogist René-Just Haüy; densely written on 3 pages, folio;
[with] autograph note (in 3rd person) to [the astronmer Jérôme] LALANDE, n.p., [3 May 1772], ‘M. Laplace est venû pour avoir l’honneur de voir Monsieur de la lande & pour s’informer De l’etat De sa santé…’, annotated by Lalande with the date and the note ‘quand il fut de l’academie en 1773 il me declara la guerre d’une maniere indigne’, half page, oblong octavo;
and three other letters and documents comprising: an autograph list of administrative documents, Paris, 13 July 1792, one page, quarto; letter signed as minister of the interior to the administrators of the département de la Meurthe, Paris, [25 November 1799], discussing arrangements for the stud at Rosières, 3 pages, quarto; letter signed as chancellor of the Senate to Germain, marquis Garnier (as comte Garnier), president of the Senate, Paris, 30 May 1810, asking for paperwork to justify certain expenditure, two pages, folio.
Laplace's substantial examination of the work by Etienne-Louis Malus (1775-1812) on double-refraction praises Christian Huygens' experimental discovery of the laws of refraction (‘qui considerée comme un resultat de l’experience, peut estre mise au rang des plus belles decouvertes de ce rare genie’), which he considers Newton and his followers to have misunderstood because of their apprehension of light as formed of 'undulations of etherised matter' ('... …. la lumière, qu’il supposoit formée par les ondulations successives d’une matiere etherée; cette hypothese sujette a de grandes difficultés est sans doute la cause pour la quelle Neuton & la pluspart des phisiciens qui l’ont suivi, ne paroissent pas avoir justement apprecié la loi qu’huygens y avoit rettachée'). Malus's paper effectively rewrites Huygens's theories in analytical form.
[with] autograph note (in 3rd person) to [the astronmer Jérôme] LALANDE, n.p., [3 May 1772], ‘M. Laplace est venû pour avoir l’honneur de voir Monsieur de la lande & pour s’informer De l’etat De sa santé…’, annotated by Lalande with the date and the note ‘quand il fut de l’academie en 1773 il me declara la guerre d’une maniere indigne’, half page, oblong octavo;
and three other letters and documents comprising: an autograph list of administrative documents, Paris, 13 July 1792, one page, quarto; letter signed as minister of the interior to the administrators of the département de la Meurthe, Paris, [25 November 1799], discussing arrangements for the stud at Rosières, 3 pages, quarto; letter signed as chancellor of the Senate to Germain, marquis Garnier (as comte Garnier), president of the Senate, Paris, 30 May 1810, asking for paperwork to justify certain expenditure, two pages, folio.
Laplace's substantial examination of the work by Etienne-Louis Malus (1775-1812) on double-refraction praises Christian Huygens' experimental discovery of the laws of refraction (‘qui considerée comme un resultat de l’experience, peut estre mise au rang des plus belles decouvertes de ce rare genie’), which he considers Newton and his followers to have misunderstood because of their apprehension of light as formed of 'undulations of etherised matter' ('... …. la lumière, qu’il supposoit formée par les ondulations successives d’une matiere etherée; cette hypothese sujette a de grandes difficultés est sans doute la cause pour la quelle Neuton & la pluspart des phisiciens qui l’ont suivi, ne paroissent pas avoir justement apprecié la loi qu’huygens y avoit rettachée'). Malus's paper effectively rewrites Huygens's theories in analytical form.
Brought to you by
Robert Tyrwhitt