[ASTRONOMY]. LALANDE (Jérôme de). Astronomy. Paris, veuve Desaint, 1771-1781. 4 volumes in-4, marbled calf, spine decorated, red edges (Binding of the period). A considerably enlarged second edition of Lalande's great Treatise on Astronomy, published in two volumes in 1764. It is illustrated with 46 folding plates. Joseph-Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (1732-1807) was one of the most illustrious French astronomers of the 18th century. A member of the Académie des Sciences, he was the author of a famous Bibliographie astronomique, the Dictionnaire d'astronomie de l'Encyclopédie méthodique and the editor of Histoire céleste, which records observations made on nearly 50,000 stars, and Connaissance des temps from 1760 to 1775 and from 1794 to 1807. A complete copy of the fourth volume, published ten years later, which is often missing. From the library of Michel Chasles (1793-1880), famous mathematician to whom we owe a theorem of physical geodesy which bears his name, who assembled one of the most important scientific libraries of the 19th century but was also the victim of the famous autograph forger Vrain-Lucas, with bookplate. Missing title and giblets, slight loss to headpieces, splits to spine, some foxing. Houzeau-Lancaster, n°9258 - Poggendorff, n°1349 - Querard, IV, 455.