This manuscript was presented to the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier, and endorsed as being received by them on 8 October 1786, for a prize in physics which the society was sponsoring on the question if the Newtonian explanation of rainbows was incontestable. Flaugergues' presentation won the prize. Included are numerous geometrical and other types of sketches.

Related to the Dupaix expeditions of 1806, four loose notebooks with 23 ink and pencil sketches of Mexican ruins and hieroglyphics. Fragmented text, in Spanish, with images of construction and decoration on stonework, pottery and buildings of various native ruins of the Yucatan. The APS manuscript sketch file has an inventory list of the images.

This volume contains two selections: the first are problems in geometry and trigonometry, and the second concerning fortifications and their layout. Note on fly-leaf says this volume was found in the Bastile.

Born in Austro-Hungary in either 1748 or 1750, Guillermo Dupaix became one of the first Europeans to observe and describe the archaeological riches of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Yucatan. Between 1805 and 1807, he lead three Royal expeditions to survey major Mexican archaeological sites, working in close concert with Jose Luciano Castañeda, an artist with the National Museum. Among the sites they visited were the Mayan ruins at Palenque, the Zapotec/Mixtec site at Mitla, and several Aztec sites. The APS version of Viages Sobre las Antiquedades Mejicanas is one of several contemporary manuscript copies of Dupaix's seminal work on Mexican archaeology. The work consists of two volumes, the first containing the text, the second, copies of Castañeda's illustrations, which here lack the distortions introduced in King's edition.

This diary records the individuals and sights that he saw while in England. There are many observations of life in London, e.g. parks, buildings, paintings, food. Outside of London he visited many towns, including Manchester and its cotton mills as well as the steel mills of Birmingham. He relates his visit to Drury Lane and the dramatic performance of Sarah Siddons. Some of the people he met included Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Blagden, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestley, William Pitt the Younger, and Benjamin Vaughan. He also visited and described the gardens at Kew. The diary includes several sketches, including the plan of Blenheim Palace, and also a table of distances traveled.

Included in this volume are short treatises on military topics, such as fortification and geometry, and military discipline; an account of campaigns (1689-1697) with the Royal Regiment of Foot in Ireland fighting the Williamite War between King James II and King William III, an account of campaigns under Prince Eugene of Savoy, with lists of troops; a section entitled "Un traittes touchant les conquètes quon pouroit faire en Amerique sur la maison de Bourbon au cas que la querre devienne generale et qui seules peuvent retablir lequilibre de l'Europe;" and lists of imperial regiments. Volume describes campaigns that took place during the successive reign of William of Orange, Queen Anne, George I and George II. British officers of note are John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford and John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.

An evolutionist before Darwin, an embryologist, paleontologist, and comparative anatomist, Étienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire was a Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris for the half century following the Reign of Terror. Following in the footsteps of Lamarck, Geoffroy held tenaciously to a belief in the underlying unity of organismal design, to the great change of being, and the possibility of the transmutation of species in time, amassing evidence for his claims through research in comparative anatomy, paleontology, and embryology. The Geoffroy Collection is comprised of 0.75 linear feet of lecture notes and correspondence relating to Geoffroy's diverse interests in natural history, Egypt, comparative anatomy, analogies, paleontology, and embryology, and it is particularly rich for his studies of teratology. All items are in French.

The papers of the Italian natural philosopher and electrician, Giambatista Beccaria (1716-1781) contain letters to Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Banks, Laura Bassi, Gian Francesco Cigna, and others on a variety of scientific topics, including atmospheric and terrestrial electricity, the aurora borealis, earthquakes, meteorology, and phosphorescence. In addition to Beccaria's epistolary essays, the collection includes several journals of meteorological observations and notes for Giovanni Eandi's biography of Beccaria.

This collection includes letters from, and drafts of letters to, scientists, artists, musicians, soldiers, political figures, and court personages throughout Europe, especially Italy and France. Topics covered range from personal and social affairs to agriculture, botany, geology, natural history, coinage, museum management, politics, weights and measures, current affairs. The collection also includes four diaries, housed separately with manuscript volumes.