LA CONDAMINE CHARLES MARIE DE: (1701-1774) French Explorer, Geographer and Mathematician. He measured the length of a degree latitude at the equator, spending ten years in Ecuador, and prepared the first map of the Amazon. Rare A.L.S., `La Condamine´, one page, 8vo, n.p., 11<sup>th</sup> December 1752, in French. La Condamine states `Je reçois dans le moment, Monsieur, par un courier du cabinet arrivant de berlin un paquet de M. de Maupertuis avec deux exemplaires de ses lettres dont un pour vous que j´ai l´honneur de vous envoyer´ (Translation: "I have received right now, Sir, by a courier of the cabinet, arriving from Berlin, a parcel from M. de Maupertuis containing two copies of his letters, one of them for you which I am honoured sending to you") La Condamine referring to Maupertuis, further states `Sa santé est un peu meilleure. Le roi est venu passer quelques heures à Berlin et lui a fait dire que son intention avait été d'aller le voir, mais que les affaires l'en avaient empêché… Vous aurez vu la lettre apologétique du roi qu'on imprime actuellement, ainsi que le tombeau de la Sorbonne…´ ("His health is a little better. The King came to spend a few hours in Berlin and told him that his intention had been to go and see him, but that work had prevented him from doing so... You will have seen the King's apologetic letter which is currently being printed, as well as that the tomb of the Sorbonne…") Tear to the bottom right edge, not affecting the text or the signature. Overall minor age wear, clipped right bottom corner and few small stains, otherwise G

 

Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698-1759) French Mathematician and Philosopher. Maupertuis was the first President of the Prussian Academy of Sciences at the invitation of Frederick the Great. He is credited with the invention of the "Principle of Least Action", and the Maupertuis´s principle, an integral equation that determines the path followed by a physical system, is named after him.