Godin was born in
Paris; his parents were François Godin and Elisabeth Charron. He was graduated at the
College of Louis le Grand, and studied astronomy under
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle. His astronomical tables (1724) gave him reputation, and the
French Academy of Sciences elected him a pensionary member. He was commissioned to write a continuation of the history of the academy, left uncompleted by
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, and was also authorized to submit to the minister, Cardinal
André-Hercule de Fleury, the best means of discovering the truth in regard to the
figure of the Earth, and proposed sending expeditions to the equator and the polar sea. The minister approved the plan and appropriated the necessary means, the academy designating
Charles Marie de La Condamine,
Pierre Bouguer, and Godin to go to Peru in 1734. The expedition sailed from
La Rochelle on 16 May 1735, touched at
Cádiz to take two naval lieutenants,
Jorge Juan y Santacilia and
Antonio de Ulloa, whom
Philip V had ordered to accompany it, and proceeded to
Santo Domingo, where they remained six months to take observations. They arrived in
Quito in February 1736, immediately crossed the
Andes to establish their stations in the interior, and remained two years. When they had finished their task in 1738, at the invitation of the
Viceroy of Peru, Godin accepted the professorship in mathematics in
Lima, where he also established a course of astronomical lectures. When the
1746 Lima–Callao earthquake destroyed the greater part of Lima, he took valuable seismological observations, assisted the sufferers, and made plans by the use of which the new buildings would be less exposed to danger from renewed shocks. In 1751 he returned to Europe, but found that he had been nearly forgotten, and superseded as pensioner of the academy; and, as his fortune had been lost in unfortunate speculations, he accepted the presidency of the college for midshipmen in
Cádiz in Spain in 1752. During the
1755 Lisbon earthquake, which was distinctly felt at Cádiz, he took observations and did much to allay the apprehensions of the public, for which he was ennobled by the king of Spain. In 1759 he was called to Paris and reinstated as pensionary member of the academy, but he died on his return to Cádiz. ==Works==