Christopher Maire (1697–1767) was an English Jesuit and writer on astronomy.
FIRST EDITION. The first measurements of the shape of the earth to prove Newton’s theory that it was ellipsoid and flattened at the poles were taken by French expeditions to Peru in 1735, and to Lapland in 1736. Interest was aroused and Pope Benedict XIV commissioned two learned Jesuits, Christopher Maire, who was English, and Roger Joseph Boscovich, from Dubrovnik, to measure an arc of the meridian between Rome and Rimini and to prepare a new map of the Papal States. “The onerous work took three years. its results confirmed…the geodetic consequences of unevenness in the earth’s strata, the possibility of determining surface irregularities by such measurements, as well as the deviation of meridians and parallels from a properly spherical shape” (DSB). The result appeared in this fine volume divided into five parts of which the first, fourth and fifth are the work of Boscovich. “Part One describes past studies on the shape of the earth and gives a vivid account of the history of the journey… Part Three corrects the existing geographical map. Part Four is one of the few treatises of that time on practical astronomy. Part Five is devoted to the theories of geodesy…” (Whyte, Boscovich, p. 45). The map, which was issued separately and is rarely found with the book, as here, shows the Papal States. It has a large explanatory tablet on the first sheet and a fine title cartouche on the third.
Video Title: Prof Maurice Whitehead: Maps, Meridians and Missions. Source: DurhamUniversity. Date Published: June 28, 2018. Description:
Maps, Meridians and Missions: Christopher Maire, SJ (1697–1767), a Durham Cartographer in Enlightenment Italy. Prof Maurice Whitehead, Schwarzenbach Research Fellow at the Venerable English College, Rome, and Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Catholic Studies, presents this Ushaw Lecture. 22 February 2017 at Ushaw College
