LE SUEUR, abbé, curé d'Erondelle - Lot 98

LE SUEUR, abbé, curé d'Erondelle La Condamine according to his unpublished papers. Paris, A. Picard, 1911. In-8 (223 x 139 mm) with a frontispiece portrait, 2 ff.n.ch., 304 pp. Olive chagrin, spine ribbed, cover without spine preserved (Cabry Amiens). First edition of the important biography on La Condamine, written by Achille Le Sueur. Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774) was an explorer, scientist, astronomer and encyclopedist. Member of the Académie des Sciences de Paris, the Royal Society of London, and members of the academies of Berlin, St. Petersburg, and others, he is celebrated for the French geodetic expedition conducted in Ecuador from 1735 to 1743 for the meridian measurements to determine the figure of the Earth. A very good copy, from the author's library with his bookplate and coat of arms on the spine. With the natural history plates in colors