Jean Sylvain Bailly

Born in Paris, Bailly was the son of Jacques Bailly, an artist and supervisor of the Louvre Palace, and the grandson of , 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, by the influence of Nicolas de Lacaille. An excellent student with a "particularly retentive memory and inexhaustible patience", he calculated an orbit for the next appearance of Halley's Comet (in 1759), and correctly reduced Lacaille's observations of 515 stars. He participated in the construction of an observatory at the Louvre. These achievements along with others got him elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1763. Due to his popularity amongst the scientific groups, in 1777, Bailly received Benjamin Franklin 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 On 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, Lacaille, Molière, Pierre Corneille and Gottfried Leibniz, 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 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'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 (3 June 1789) In the National Assembly (French Revolution) 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 on 14 July 1789, he became the first mayor of Paris under the newly adopted system of the Commune. of the Tennis Court Oath. Bailly is pictured in the centre, facing the viewer, his right hand raised. ==Mayor of Paris==

On 15 July 1789, Bailly took office as the mayor of Paris. Two days later he was met by Louis XVI 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. 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. He allowed investors to begin the purchasing of church property. Bailly soon heard of a gathering at the Champ de Mars, 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, 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 volumes 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 at Melun, but was recognized 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 in Paris, speedily tried, and sentenced to death the next day. On 12 November 1793, he was guillotined at the Champ de Mars, a site selected symbolically as the location of his betrayal of the republican 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 as a part of republican heritage after 10 August 1792, as well as a campaign of municipal persecution led by Marat, that ultimately resulted in Bailly's execution, as well as that of "many of his colleagues". Before his death, 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==