Suite des Eloges des Academiciens de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, morts depuis l'an M.DCC.XXII.

Paris:: Chez la Veuve Brunet fils,. . . et Marc Bordelet 1733., 1733. 12mo. [viii], 422 [misnumbered "322"], [2] pp. Frontis. engraved portrait. (of Fontenelle – is trimmed, folded at the upper and lower edges), by "[Cre]py rue St. Jacques au lion d'Argent", title woodcut vignette. Original gilt-stamped calf, gilt-stamped spine label, raised bands. Inscription on title: "O.R., lousin aet coner"[?]. Very good copy with a handsome binding. "Extra-illustrated" with an added engraved bound-in folding frontispiece. This edition of the author's eulogies includes fourteen members of the Academie des Sciences who died between 1725 and 1730. There were two issues of this work printed in 1733: one showing "Brunet fils and Marc Bordelet, the other issue showing only Marc Bordelet's name as publisher. They also feature a resetting of the type (at least for the title-page) and a different title woodcut vignette. There was an earlier 1731 Dutch edition of the Eloges printed by Isaac van der Kloot, but I have been unable to determine if the biographies contained therein are the same. A note indicates this was also re-issued as miscellany works, Oeuvres diverses, of Fontenelle in 1736 [see pt. 4]. Fontenelle was a prolific biographer of notable persons, publishing also a series of Dialogues with famous (past) historical figures. His Eloges commenced with a 1699 work on Claude Bourdelin. He also issued collective editions starting in 1708. This is the first 'separate' edition of the "Suite" containing biographies of 14 scientific notables. "It was Bernard Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757) who by his eulogies of scientists first bridged the gap between the scientific communities and the world at large [.] the eloges of the old Academy of Sciences acquainted laymen with a discipline that was at once esoteric by its novelty and forbidding by its terminology and methodology. Hence the eloges, aside from the other functions they performed in the service of science, also served as a public relations organ in the same manner as journals, textbooks, public lectures, literary dialogues, scientific expositions, and cabinets de physique and d'histoire naturelle" - Charles Bennett Paul, Science and immortality: the Eloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699-1791), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. (pages 1-2). Contents: eloges du Czar Pierre I - Alexis Littre (1658-1726) – Nicolas Hartsoeker (1656-1725)- Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726) - Nicolas de Malezieu (1650-1727) – Isaac Newton [published 1727, 1728] - Charles-Rene Reyneau (1656-1728) - Marechal de Tallard (1652-1728) - Sebastien Truchet (1656-1729) – Francois Bianchini (1662-1720) – Jacques-Philippe [also known as: Giacomo Filippo. . . ] Maraldi (1665-1729) - Jean-Baptiste-Henri de Valincourt (1653-1730) – Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658-1730) – Du Verney (1648-1730) - et le discours de Fontenelle a l'Academie francaise recevant l'eveque de Lucon. See: Suzanne Delorme, "Contribution a la bibliographie de Fontenelle." (p. 305). Revue d'histoire des sciences, Annee 1957, vol. 10-4, pp. 300-309. (Inventory #: RW1080)