356 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 
good humour; he never contradicted any one; and he 
always descended to the level of every person with whom 
he conversed: his modesty and simplicity were extreme ; 
and it was surprising to find in a man so consummately 
learned, the candour and simplicity of a child: his memory 
was surprising : he lived a life of celibacy, and by his death, 
the house of Ratte, established in Languedoc since 1433, 
became extinct. This family was originally from Bologna 
in Italy, and was known so early as the year 1125 by the 
talents and virtues of. Hubert de Ratte, cardinal and archbi- 
shop of Pisa, and by the military exploits of Jean de Ratte, 
count of Caserta in the kingdom of Naples. 
The astronomical observations of M. de Ratte have beet 
collected by his nephew M. de Flaugergues, at Viviers. 
M. Poitevin, secretary of the academy, who is also an astro- 
nomer, has published his eulogy at great length at Montpe- 
lier. 
We have also lost M. Romme, an able professor of navi- 
gation at Rochefort. He had laboured in astronomy along 
with me in his youth ; I procured a place for him at Roche- 
fort, and he made several observations. 
In 1771 he published a method for determining the longi- 
tudes at sea; in 1800 he gave a model of a calculation for 
finding the latitude and longitude at sea, wherein he seems 
to think the method of Borda inconvenient in certain cases. 
M. Delambre, in the Connotssancé du Temps, An XII. 
p. 263, has shown that several authors are actually mistaken 
in thinking that the sum of the two altitudes and the di- 
stance surpasses 180°; but this cannot happen. 
Romme yave in 1778 the art of mast-making ; in 1781, 
that of sail-making ; in 1787, L’ Art de la Marine, or prin- 
ciples and general precepts on the art of building, mancen- 
vring, and steering vessels; a work very much esteemed 
among navigators. 
He had composed several other works, which Barois the 
elder was upon the point of printing in 1798; but I was 
particularly desirous of seeing published his tables of the 
winds, the tides, and the currents in every sea; which ap- 
peared in two volumes in octavo. In 1796 he sent me 
some 
