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This article is about the French-born cartographer and astronomer. For his grandfather, the Italian-born astronomer for whom a Saturn probe was named, see Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
César-François Cassini de Thury
César-François Cassini de Thury,
miniature watercolour on ivory
by Jean-Marc Nattier
Born(1714-06-17)17 June 1714
Thury-sous-Clermont, France
Died4 September 1784(1784-09-04) (aged 70)
Paris, France
Nationality French
Known for Topographical map of France
Children Jean-Dominique Cassini
Scientific career
Fields Cartography
Astronomy
Institutions Paris Observatory

César-François Cassini de Thury (17 June 1714 – 4 September 1784), also called Cassini III or Cassini de Thury, was a French astronomer and cartographer.

Biography

Cassini de Thury was born in Thury-sous-Clermont, in the Oise department, the second son of Jacques Cassini and Suzanne Françoise Charpentier de Charmois. [1] He was a grandson of Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and would become the father of Jean-Dominique Cassini, Comte de Cassini. [2]

In 1739, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences as a supernumerary adjunct astronomer, in 1741 as an adjunct astronomer, and in 1745 as a full member astronomer.

In January 1751, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [3]

Cassini de Thury succeeded to his father's official position in 1756 and continued the hereditary surveying operations. [4] In 1744, he began the construction of a great topographical map of France, [5] one of the landmarks in the history of cartography. Completed by his son Jean-Dominique, Cassini IV and published by the Académie des Sciences from 1744 to 1793, its 180 plates are known as the Cassini map ( fr).

The post of director of the Paris Observatory was created for his benefit in 1771 when the establishment ceased to be a dependency of the French Academy of Sciences. [5] A letter and proposal sent by Cassini de Thury to the Royal Society in London instigated the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790), which measured the precise distance between the Paris Observatory and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, by way of a trigonometric survey.

His chief works are: La méridienne de l’Observatoire Royal de Paris (1744), an arc measurement correction of the Paris meridian ( Dunkirk-Collioure arc measurement (Cassini de Thury and de Lacaille)); Description géométrique de la terre (1775); and Description géométrique de la France (1784), which was completed by his son ("Cassini IV"). [5]

César-François Cassini de Thury died of smallpox in Paris on 4 September 1784.

Works

  • La méridienne de l’Observatoire Royal de Paris (1744)
  • Description géométrique de la terre (1775)
  • Description géométrique de la France (1784)
  • César-François Cassini de Thury (1775). Relation d'un voyage en Allemagne. Paris: Imprimerie Royale.

Bibliography

D. Aubin, Femmes, vulgarisation et pratique des sciences au siècle des Lumières : Les Dialogues sur l’astronomie et la Lettre sur la figure de la Terre de César-François Cassini de Thury, Brepols (2020)

See also

References

  1. ^ Jonathan Powell, From Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping, (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019), 114
  2. ^ Jonathan Powell, From Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping, (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019), 115
  3. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 21 December 2010.[ permanent dead link]
  4. ^ Jonathan Powell, From Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping, (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019), 115
  5. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Clerke, Agnes Mary (1911). " Cassini s.v. César François Cassini, or Cassini de Thury". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 459.

External links

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