France: 1810.
A curious blank book bound in France around 1810. The rectos of the first three leaves bear a few workaday manuscript ledger expenses, dated 1860-1, but the remaining 633 laid-paper leaves are entirely blank—at least at first glance. In a raking light, however, we discover  that to the.....

Paris: Claude-François Laurens, 1801.
The great French Enlightenment astronomer Jérôme Lalande must have been busy working on his two most important works—the Histoire Céleste Française, his momumental star chart, and the Bibliographie astronomique—when this little almanac was published around 1801. Lalande's Almanac des physiciens is compelling as representive of a......