Abstract
Jean-Claude David : Grimm, Lalande and the École militaire's quadrant. One letter from Grimm and three from Lalande (1785-6) are published here for the first time. They concern the sale in Paris of a quadrant of a hitherto unknown precision, unique in France. Lalande wished to acquire it for the Royal Military Academy, while Grimm was trying to buy it for the Duke of Saxe-Gotha whose dream was to build an observatory. Lalande managed to defeat Grimm's secret negotiations and persuaded the War Ministry to finance the purchase of the instrument, without which a chapter in the history of astronomy would doubtless never have been written.
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