Geocentro Magazine - Fondazione Geometri

Meridiano di Francia, dal trattato "De la grandeur et de la Figure de
la Terre", pubblicato nel 1723 da Jacques Cassini
Cassini merdian as published in 1723 "Traité de la grandeur et de la
Figure de la Terre"
senza successo, deve però attendere ancora altri quattro
anni, dopo la pubblicazione della sua seconda versione,
dal titolo Epistolarum mathematicarum fasciculus (1729),
perché da esso Pierre-Luois Moreau de Maupertuis (1698
- 1759) prenda spunto per la pubblicazione del suo
saggio Sur la figure del la terre (1733), col quale incita gli
scienziati dell’epoca a compiere tutti gli sforzi operativi
possibili per giungere a dirimere la “questione geodetica”,
abbandonando le mere speculazioni filosofiche, che non
avrebbero approdato a nulla di nuovo.
itself to be far more difficult to ascertain than latitude, the
measurement of the arc of a meridian at different latitudes
appeared to be the best choice. By initiative of the Académie
Royale des Sciences de Paris, two famous expeditions to
Lapland and Peru were financed. The first one to leave was
the one directed to Peru (1735), with Louis Godin (1704-
1760), Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774), and
Pierre Bouguer (1698-1758), and the second one, followed
in 1736, to Lapland, leaded by Pierre-Louis Moreau de
Maupertuis (1698-1759). Thanks to them, the Newton’s
theory was confirmed once and for all by the empirical data
and it was recognised as the truth: the Geodetic Revolution
is started and new, unexpected perspectives are opened for
the cartographical science.
Another step towards a geometrical cartography on a
topographical scale for wider territories is taken thanks to the
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