Jean-Sylvain Bailly
Jean-Sylvain Bailly (born September 15, 1736 in Paris , † November 12, 1793 ibid) was a French astronomer and first mayor of Paris. Bailly was best known for calculating the orbit of Halley's Comet in 1759. He also studied the four known moons of Jupiter . He was guillotined during the French Revolution .
Life
As the son of a painter, he initially occupied himself with painting and poetry , but soon turned to scientific studies and was won over to astronomy by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille . After his father's death, Bailly was given the post of overseer of the Luxembourg Gallery , in 1789 he became secretary of the Paris Electoral College and soon afterwards deputy of the third estate to the Estates General . Elected President of the National Assembly on June 3 , he chaired the important meeting on June 20 in the Ballhaus hall ( Ballhaus Oath ). After the storming of the Bastille , he was appointed mayor of Paris, but resigned from office in November 1791 - known by the Jacobins as a royalist - and lived on his estate in Nancy . In the trial of the deposed Queen Marie Antoinette , he appeared as a witness for her innocence. He then left Paris and lived in secret so as not to be accused himself. On the way to his friend Laplace , he was in Melun by agents of Robespierre caught and in Paris "as King friend and violent oppressors of the People's Freedom" on November 11, 1793 to death sentenced to the guillotine and the next day put to death . According to an eyewitness account, supporters of the Jacobins are said to have accompanied the cart with which Bailly was brought to the scaffold , dancing and singing freedom songs. His last words were addressed to her: "You should be given the guillotine rather than me."
The moon crater Bailly has been named after him since 1935 and the asteroid (100229) Jeanbailly since 2014 .
Works
Bailly's main work "Histoire de l'astronomie" (Paris 1775–87, 5 vols .; an excerpt 1806, 2 vols.) Has been largely translated into German. His claim that science owes most of its discoveries to a lost people, contradicted and argued. a. Voltaire . Bailly then brought the "Lettres sur l'origine des sciences" (Paris 1777; German, Leipzig 1778) and the "Lettres sur l'Atlantide de Platon et sur l'ancienne histoire de l'Asie" (London 1771; English 1801) , 2 vols.). After Bailly's death "Essai sur les fables et sur leur histoire" (Paris 1799, 2 vols.) And "Mémoires d'un témoin de la révolution" (Paris 1804, 3 vols .; German in excerpt from Weyland, Leipzig 1805) were published . Cf. Nourrisson, Trois révolutionnaires: Turgot, Necker, B. (Paris 1885).
Individual evidence
Web links
- Literature by and about Jean-Sylvain Bailly in the catalog of the German National Library
- Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
- Correspondence between Jean-Sylvain Bailly and Carl von Linné
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
|
- Bon-Albert Briois de Beaumetz |
President of the National Assembly June 17, 1789 - July 3, 1789 June 8, 1790 - June 21, 1790 |
Louis Philippe Joseph Louis-Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bailly, Jean-Sylvain |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French astronomer and first mayor of Paris |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 15, 1736 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1793 |
| Place of death | Paris |