Table 2

^a     Wolf, Observatoire, 14–16, gives the cost of the Observatory from 1667 through 1683 as 713,954 lv. 15 s. 11 d.; my total for Colbert's expenditure on the Observatory is 713,704 lv. 3 s. 11 d. The following points explain this difference of 250 lv. 12 s. between our totals:

(i) Wolfy included two payments of 620 lv. to Danglebert for a wooden model of the Observatory (in 1667 and 1668); there was only one (CdB, 1: 276).

(ii) Wolf omitted 8 s. in a payment for a furnace (CdB, 1: 213).

(iii) Wolf omitted payment of 600 lv. to Sainte-Marie for guarding the construction site (CdB, 1: 376).

(iv) Wolf omitted 6 s. from his total for 1669, although it appears in his subtotals.

(v) Wolf's total for 1671 omits 200 lv. included in the subtotals.

(vi) Wolf includes in the costs of construction 431 lv. paid to Furet in 1683 for metalwork and scientific instruments. I count that as payment for scientific instruments.

(vii) Addition of Wolf's yearly totals yields the sum of 713,954 lv. 9 s. 11 d., not 713,954 lv. 15 s. 11 d., as printed.

I follow Wolf (Observatoire, 8) in accepting that only one payment of 6,604 lv. was made for purchase of the site, although two payments are listed in CdB, 1: 153, 216. Both Wolf and I base our calculations on the CdB, but the architect Robert de Cotte, a surintendant des bâtiments du roy, calculated in the eighteenth century that from 1667 to 1683 the Observatory cost 725,174 lv. 4 s. 8 d.: BN MS. fr. 7801: 54r–55r. His sources are unknown.

^b     Some repairs are included with small expenses. See table 11b, 167 lv. 13 s. 3 d. (1687), 433 lv. 19 s. (1688), and 370 lv. 9 s. (1689).

^c     As Wolf, Observatoire, 167–68, states, the sum paid to Claude Tricot, mason, in 1686 must have been 2,748 lv. 17 s. 5 d., not 2,748 lv. 17 s. 4 d. as written in CdB, since this is parfait payement of a total of 3,548 lv. 17 s. 5 d.