Thursday, December 15, 2005

Flammarion









(Nicolas) Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) loved astronomy from the time he was a child growing up in France. He worked at the Paris Observatory for some time before establishing a private Observatory at nearby Juvisy.

He is a somewhat enigmatic figure, establishing the Astronomical Society of France at the same time as promoting a belief in metempsychosis (transmigration of souls) and extraterrestrial lifeforms. He had a keen interest in meteorology which led him to take many balloon flights. Of his large body of published works, 2 standout as being responsible for popularizing astronomy towards the beginning of the 20th century - Astronomie Populaire (1880) and L'Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (1888).

Although I'm of the belief that all the images above are from these 2 books, I am not certain so take the truth of this post with a touch of salt. (not that I would ever claim authority in any entry at BibliOdyssey however I'm usually confident source material and background links have integrity but, like, this is the internet)
[Click the images above for larger versions]

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