‎(BAILLY, J.-S.)‎
‎Discours et mémoires, par l'auteur de l'Histoire de l'astronomie.‎

‎A Paris, Chez De Bure, 1790. With folding table. 2 volumes. (4), 454 pp.; (4), 434 pp. 8vo. Modern half morocco, spine gilt in compartments, marbled boards. Martin & Walter 1192. First collective edition of previously published pieces, rare. Volume 1 contains eulogies of Corneille, Molière, Leibnitz, Captain Cook, etc., volume 2 contains reports on magnetism, on the project of a new Hôtel-de-Dieu, etc., for the greater part edited and signed collectively with Franklin, Le Roy, Guillotin, Lavoisier, a.o.Jean-Sylvain Bailly was a brilliant scientist and a politician. His scientific successes brought him admission to the prestigious Académie des Sciences in 1763, and he was later admitted to the Académie française and appointed to the Académie des Belles-Lettres by the king, at which time he was the only man together with de Fontenelle, to hold the distinction of membership of all three academies. The first volume of the present work, although not considered to be a literary masterpiece, reveals Bailly's theory of government: he loved the king and respected the institution of the monarchy, but he also believed fervently in a meritocracy, which was neither present nor possible under an absolute monarchy. Bailly researched the theories of Mesmer and his disciples and unmasked them as charletans and he reported on the conditions in the hospitals and slaughterhouses. During the Revolution Bailly led the assembly in taking the oath that created the National Assembly, was elected the first President of that body, and somewhat later he was named mayor of Paris. The events on July 17, 1791, (Champs de Mars massacre) lead to his resignation as mayor of Paris and his execution 2 years later. ‎

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