Cassini, Dominique, Comte De

Dominique, comte de Cassini, in full Jacques-Dominique, comte de Cassini, also called Cassini IV, (born June 30, 1748, Paris—died October 18, 1845, Thury, France), French geodesist and astronomer who completed his father’s map of France, which was later used as the basis for the Atlas National (1791). The son of César-François Cassini de Thury, he succeeded him as director of the Observatoire de Paris in 1784, but the French Revolution interrupted his plans for restoring and reequipping the observatory. He briefly cooperated with the revolutionary government, but his monarchist sympathies prevailed, and he was denounced and arrested. After some months in prison he withdrew to Thury in 1794. Later, Napoleon I made him a senator and count.