Jean-Sylvain Bailly
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Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. He presided over the
Tennis Court Oath On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (french: Serment du Jeu de Paume) in the tennis court which had been built in 1686 for the use of the Versailles palace. Their vow "not to separate and to reas ...
, served as the
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of Paris from 1789 to 1791, and was ultimately
guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...
d during the Reign of Terror.


Scientific career

Born in Paris, Bailly was the son of Jacques Bailly, an artist and supervisor of the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, and the grandson of Nicholas Bailly, also an artist and court painter. As a child he originally intended to follow in his family's footsteps and pursue a career in the arts. He became deeply attracted to science, however, particularly
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
, by the influence of
Nicolas de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Goo ...
. An excellent student with a "particularly retentive memory and inexhaustible patience",Stephens, p. 51. he calculated an orbit for the next appearance of
Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the on ...
(in 1759), and correctly reduced Lacaille's observations of 515 stars. He participated in the construction of an observatory at the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. These achievements along with others got him elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1763. In the years prior to the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, Bailly's distinctive reputation as a French astronomer led to his recognition and admiration by the European scientific community. Due to his popularity amongst the scientific groups, in 1777, Bailly received
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
as a guest in his house in Chaillot.


Scientific and other writing

Bailly published his ''Essay on The Theory of the Satellites of Jupiter'' in 1766. The essay was an expansion of a presentation he had made to the academy in 1763. He later released the noteworthy dissertation O''n the Inequalities of Light of the Satellites of Jupiter'' in 1771. In 1778, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Bailly gained a high literary reputation thanks to his '' Eulogies'' for King
Charles V of France Charles V (21 January 1338 – 16 September 1380), called the Wise (french: le Sage; la, Sapiens), was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380. His reign marked an early high point for France during the Hundred Years' War, with his armi ...
,
Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good ...
,
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...
, Pierre Corneille and
Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathem ...
, which were issued in collected form in 1770 and 1790. He was admitted to the Académie française on 26 February 1784 and to the
Académie des Inscriptions An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
in 1785. From then on, Bailly devoted himself to the history of science. He published ''A History of Ancient Astronomy'' in 1775, followed by ''A History of Modern Astronomy'' (3 vols., 1782). Other works include ''Discourse on the Origin of the Sciences and the Peoples of Asia'' (1777), ''Discourse on
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's 'Atlantide''' (1779), and ''A Treatise on Indian and Oriental Astronomy'' (1787). Though his works were "universally admired" by contemporaries, later commentators have remarked that "their erudition was… marred by speculative extravagances."


During the French Revolution

In a short period of time, Bailly made his way up the judicial ranks. From being the deputy of Paris, he was elected Estates-General on 20 May 1789. Soon after he was elected inaugural president of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
(3 June 1789) and led the famous proceedings in the Tennis Court on 20 June, being the first to take the Tennis Court Oath. In the
National Assembly (French Revolution) During the French Revolution, the National Assembly (french: Assemblée nationale), which existed from 17 June 1789 to 29 September 1791, was a revolutionary assembly of the Kingdom of France formed by the representatives of the Third Estate ( ...
Bailly was one of the deputies who secured the passage of a decree that declared Jews to be French citizens on 17 September 1791. He was met with threats and ridicule for this action. This decree repealed the special taxes that had been imposed on the Jews, as well as all the ordinances existing against them. Bailly was a member of the '' Club de 1789'', one of the best-known societies at the time. Though calls on his time from his mayoral duties restricted his involvement in the group, by May 1790, Bailly had risen to presiding officer of the club. In 1791, Jean Sylvain Bailly joined the Jacobin Club, but took no active role in it. Shortly after the
storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At ...
on 14 July 1789, he became the first
mayor of Paris The Mayor of Paris (french: Maire de Paris) is the chief executive of Paris, the capital and largest city in France. The officeholder is responsible for the administration and management of the city, submits proposals and recommendations to the C ...
under the newly adopted system of the ''
Commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
.''


Mayor of Paris

On 15 July 1789, Bailly took office as the mayor of Paris. Two days later he was met by
Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
at the Hôtel de Ville who was there to endorse the Revolution. Bailly presented him with the new symbol of the revolution: the cockade of France. In his function as
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
, he was attacked by
Camille Desmoulins Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins (; 2 March 17605 April 1794) was a French journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Georges Danton when the Committee ...
and Jean-Paul Marat as too conservative. Bailly continuously sought to promote the authority of the mayor while limiting the power of the General Assembly of the Commune.


Maintaining order

Jean Sylvain Bailly sought to be in full control of his administration as the mayor of Paris. He envisioned being in a position where all answered to him, and only his orders were to be followed. Creating a centralized government within Paris was his plan, however Parisians were not keen with this vision. His views are depicted in the following passage of his ''Mémoires:''
"... in the executive assembly, the mayor who presides over it is a specific officer of the commune. This Assembly possesses the totality of power, but its chief is its agent, its executive authority, who should be charged with the execution of its orders and the maintenance of its regulations. Moreover, since he is at the head of the administration, he understands all of its branches and has all of its strings in his hands. He is in a better position to detect the difficulties and the dangers than the other members who do not have the same information. If the law does not demand it, reason dictates that no important step be taken and no important questions be decided in his absence, unless he be allowed at least to make observations..."


Food crisis

During the early years of the French Revolution, Paris was going through a major food shortage. Bailly's actions to circumvent the situation were of great importance in keeping the revolution alive. Bailly had deputies gather grain that was being hoarded, made the sale of wheat mandatory by farmers, and helped the bakers by making them first in line in the village markets. Convoys that transported grain obtained by deputies were often attacked. To deter these attacks, Bailly signed a decree imposing a fine of five hundred livres on anyone found obstructing such convoys. Not only did the mayor control the supply of grain in the city, but he also imported grain from Africa to increase the city's reserve. A provisional regime was established in October, 1789, in order to stabilize the administration of the government. Doing so led to order being established within the different jurisdictions, allowing The Communal Assembly, with the help of Bailly, to gain control of the food crisis. By February, 1790, the situation in Paris had improved.


National Guard

The
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...
, formed during the revolution by The Communal Assembly, was weak and underfunded. Lafayette, chief of the militia, could only do so much to strengthen this newly formed military. It took persuading to get funding from the Assembly to cover the cost and wages brought on by the troops. Bailly saw the importance of having a military that was well-equipped. In the fall of 1789, Bailly was able to acquire ammunition for the troops. In October 1789, Bailly was involved in the establishment of the National Guard department, whose purpose was to arm the military. The mayor not only played a role in strengthening the National Guard, but also issued orders to Lafayette when trying to maintain civility within the city. Bailly's use of troops was to secure the prisons, certify the ''droits d'entrée'' would be collected, and to ensure that beggars would not congregate in the city.


Church property

In an unsuccessful attempt at financial reconstruction, the National Assembly had taken control of church property, making it available to buyers through the issue of non-negotiable bonds known as "
assignat An assignat () was a monetary instrument, an order to pay, used during the time of the French Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars. France Assignats were paper money (fiat currency) issued by the Constituent Assembly in France from 1 ...
s". Bailly, along with the Municipal Bureau, then came up with a proposition on 10 March 1790, asking the government to give the city of Paris 200,000,000 livres worth of church land for it to sell to private investors in a period of three years. For their work in selling the land, Bailly and his administration would retain 50,000,000 livres. The National Assembly agreed to this deal. On 2 August 1790, Bailly was reelected as mayor.Les lundis révolutionnaires: 1790 by Jean-Bernard, p. 250-251
/ref> He allowed investors to begin the purchasing of church property. Before a year had passed, 28,000,000 livres worth of land had already been sold. Bailly's proposal proved successful in generating revenue for Paris and the French state.


Fall from favour

After a failed attempt by the royal family to flee the country, Bailly tried to contain the growing republican crowds asking for the King to step down. On the morning of 17 July 1791, tensions were rising as suspicion of treason grew. Citizens suspected of criticising the government or National Guard were being interrogated and detained. Bailly soon heard of a gathering at the
Champ de Mars The Champ de Mars (; en, Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after t ...
, where citizens were meeting to sign petitions calling for the overthrow of the King. Imposing martial law, he ordered the National Guard to disperse the large riotous assembly that had gathered. A violent response ensued and many people died, for which Bailly, along with
Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757 ...
, was considered responsible. What was to become known as the Champ de Mars Massacre was taken by the revolutionaries as an exemplar for oppression by the government. Having thereby become extremely unpopular, Bailly resigned on 12 November and was replaced four days later by Jerôme Pétion. Bailly moved to Nantes where he composed his ''Mémoires d'un Témoin'' (published in 3 vols. by MM. Berville and Barrière, 1821–1822), an incomplete narrative of the extraordinary events of his public life.


Execution

In July 1793, Bailly left Nantes to join his friend
Pierre Simon Laplace Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized ...
at
Melun Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of the Seine-et-Ma ...
, but was recognised there and arrested. On 14 October, he was pressed to testify against Marie Antoinette but refused. On 10 November 1793, he was brought before the
Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...
in Paris, speedily tried, and sentenced to death the next day. On 12 November 1793, he was guillotined at
Champ de Mars The Champ de Mars (; en, Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after t ...
, a site selected symbolically as the location of his betrayal of the democratic movement. The little red flag he had used to give the order to fire on the crowds on the Champs de Mars was tied to the cart that took him to his death, and burned in front of him before he was executed. It was the revival of this event after 10 August in 1793 along with the persecution of Marat that led to the death of Bailly. He was forced to endure the freezing rain and the insults of a howling mob. When a scoffer shouted, ''"Tu trembles, Bailly?"'' ("Do you tremble, Bailly?"), he responded, ''"Oui, mais c'est seulement de froid"'' ("Yes, but it is only the cold").


See also

*
Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism involved two entirely separate and independent French Royal Commissions, each appointed by Louis XVI in 1784, that were conducted simultaneously by a committee composed of four physicians from the Paris ...


References


Works

*
''Essai sur la théorie des satellites de Jupiter''
1766 *
''Sur les inégalités de la lumière des satellites de Jupiter''
1771 *
''Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne''
1775 *
''Histoire de l'astronomie moderne''
1782 *
''Lettres sur l'origine des sciences et sur celle des peuples de l'Asie''
1777 *
''Lettres sur l'Atlantide de Platon et sur l'ancienne histoire de l'Asie''
1779 *
''Traite de l'astronomie indienne et orientale''
1787


Sources

* * * * Bailly, J.-S., "Secret Report on Mesmerism or Animal Magnetism", ''International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis'', Vol.50, No.4, (October 2002), pp. 364–368
doi=10.1080/00207140208410110
* Franklin, B., Majault, M.J., Le Roy, J.B., Sallin, C.L., Bailly, J.-S., d'Arcet, J., de Bory, G., Guillotin, J.-I. & Lavoisier, A., "Report of The Commissioners charged by the King with the Examination of Animal Magnetism", ''International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis'', Vol.50, No.4, (October 2002), pp. 332–363
doi=10.1080/00207140208410109


Further reading

* ''Eloges'' by Merard de Saint Just, Delisle de Salles,
Jérôme Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer. Biography Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (now in the département of Ain) to Pierre Lefrançois and Marie‐Anne‐Ga ...
and Lacretelle * A memoir by François Arago, read on 26 February 1844 before the Académie des Sciences, and published in ''Notices biographiques'', t. ii. (1852) * Delambre, ''Histoire de l'astronomie au 18me siecle'', p. 735 * Jérôme Lalande, ''Bibliographie astronomique'', p. 730.


External links


Portrait of Jean Sylvain Bailly from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections

Lettres sur l'origine des sciences et sur celle des peuples de l'Asie : adressées à M. de Voltaire / par M. Bailly, et précédées de quelques lettres de M. de Voltaire à l'auteur. 1777

Lettres sur L’Atlantide de Platon et sur l’ancienne histoire de l’Asie, pour servir de suite aux lettres sur l’origine des Sciences, adressées à M. de Voltaire par M. Bailly. 1779

Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, depuis son origine jusqu'à l'établissement de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie. 1781
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailly, Jean Sylvain 1736 births 1793 deaths Scientists from Paris Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France) Mayors of Paris 18th-century French astronomers French Roman Catholics French Freemasons Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Members of the Académie Française Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution