NavList:

Luc Van  den Borre, you wrote:

• George Phillips Bond wrote 'Account of the Great Comet of 1858', published in 1862.
• Between pages 40 and 41 of this book one finds an illustration of the comet as observed from Harvard College Observatory. This appears to be the source for the celestial part of the Notre Dame image.
• The Notre Dame image is a lithography produced for the book 'Le Ciel' by Amédée Guillemin.
• The first edition of 1864 of 'Le Ciel' has a different view of the Paris sky as a frontispiece. The fifth edition of 1877 has the Donati litho. Not sure in which edition it makes its debut.
• Authors of the litho are E. Guillemin et Ph. Benoist.
• Phillippe Benoist made quite a few lithos of Notre Dame, and many more of other Parisian views.
• 'Le Ciel' had many editions and was translated into other languages.
• The 1867 edition of the English translation 'The Heavens' has the the comet above Harvard College Observatory as frontispiece. Closer to the truth but less dramatic.

That's great and fills in some key missing details! Thank you.

You added:
"That was fun but now it's 2am"

Ah yes. I know that feeling...

Frank Reed