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Nom
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Desnos, Louis Charles
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Date de naissance
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1725
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Date de mort
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1784
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Lieu de naissance
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Pont St Maxence, near Beauvais
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Lieu de mort
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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1749-1784
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Biographie
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Desnos was apprenticed in the Founders' Corporation to Joseph Simon Guibout (qv) on 8 April 1745. On 25 June 1749 he married the young widow of the globe-maker Nicolas Hardy (qv), Marie Charlotte Loye. He began working immediately with her father-in-law, the globe mounter also named Nicolas Hardy (qv), whose successor Desnos advertised himself to be in 1754, although he did not receive his freedom until January 1 1757 (1). Shortly afterwards he moved from Hardy's premises to the Rue St Jacques and here, although continuing to make globes, began to diversify his production into instrument-making in general (2), and into the publication of maps and charts. Production of these was made possible by the purchase of the stock of geographical printing plates of Desbois, the grandson of Nicolas de Fer, and from 1759 he enjoyed the position of geographer and bookseller to the King of Denmark. In about 1770 he developed a reusable paper which he described in his history of writing and its instruments. Towards the end of his career he specialised in the publication of small size pocket editions particularly of almanchs of which 120 different varieties are listed in his 1783 catalogue (3). Despite all this activity in 1784 he was forced to declare bankruptcy (4).
Globes & sphere
Armillary sphere 1753
Terrestrial globe 1758
Armillary sphere 1767
Terrestrial/celestial pair dedicated to the Marquis de Marigny, 1768-70
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Notes biographiques
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1 Augarde 68.
2 Instruments known by Desnos include globes (see appendix in Pastoureau for those made in collaboration with Hardy), armillary spheres (Turner-Randier 20.5.88 lot 86), sectors (Wilmart 4.12.87 lot 108), Butterfield-type dials (Randier Jan/Feb. 1988; Bonhams 19 September 2018 lot 48) and the Cosmoplane of Dicquemare in 1768 (Brenni et al 12 no 20; Christies SK 4.10.95 lot 24 = Musée des Découvertes, Montréal; Sotheby's 27.4.99 lot). Others are listed by Webster & Webster ii, 51 and a still wider range is indicated in the 1765 catalogue.
3 Pastoureau, passim, upon which this entry largely relies.
4 Pedley 123.
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Bibliographie
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Catalogue des ouvrages tant ancien que modernes du fonds du Sr Desnos, ingénieur-géographe pour les globes et sphères…, 1765.
Dissertation Historique sur L'invention Des Lettres, Ou Caracteres D'écriture: sur Les Instruments dont Les Anciens Se Sont Servi Pour Écrire; & sur Les Matières Qu'ils Ont Employées . Suivi d'une instruction raisonnée sur le Papier nouveau que le Sieur Desnos annonce au Public…, Paris, chez Desnos, Ingénieur-Géographe & Libraire de Sa Majesté Danoise, rue Saint Jacques, au Globe, 1771.
Almanach anecdotique du regne de Louis XV; … quise continuera chaque année. On y joint des tabletes d'uhn apier nouveau pour ecrire avec une pointe quelconque, même un épingle, & effacer à volonté sans que le papier soit altéré. Nd [1772]. The last 48 paes of this work are made from his special paper.
Catalogue des ouvrages de géographie ...dont est composé le fonds du..., Paris, 1775
La Sphère artificielle oblique. Elevée sur l'horizon à la latitude de Paris..., 1781.
Catalogue des atlas historiques et cartes géographiques des meilleurs auteurs, dont est composé le fonds du..., Paris, n.d.
Nouveau. supplément au catalogue du Sieur Desnos, Paris 1783.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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Rue St Julien-le-Pauvre à Paris (1753 armillary sphere) where he remained until 1756.
Rue saint Jacques, près la fontaine Séverin à l'Enseigne du Globe & de la Sphère. (1757 armillary sphere; 1758 globe; Catalogue, 1768 Dicquemare cosmoplane, Tablettes 1772)
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Catalogue
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Catalogue des ouvrages tant anciens que modernes du fonds d 1765 Paris
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Relation
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Hardy Nicolas beau-p
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Identifiant
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23
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ark:/18469/1pzx4