GIONO (Jean). The Weight of the Sky. 32 astrophotographs by M. de Kerolyr. Paris: Gallimard, [1938]. - In-4, paperback. First edition of this work containing three essays: Danse des ames modernes - Les Grandeurs libres - Beauté de l'individu. "These essays extend the meditation of True riches, the criticism of machinism and the exaltation of natural life [...] Caught up in the dance of machines, the soul has deserted man's body, it now lives in metal, it inspires inhuman techniques. But in the mountains, craftsmen and wheat cutters continue to keep alive the peasant civilization, which knows how to 'use celestial things with an animal taste'" (Pierre de Boisdeffre. "Giono". Gallimard, coll. La Bibliothèque idéale, 1965, p 119). The illustration includes 33 black and white photographs, one of which is on the cover, and 32 out-of-text. With the exception of the last one, they are astrophotographs taken by M. de Kerolyr, "obtained with the 81-centimeter aperture telescope of the Astrophysical Station of the Paris Observatory in Forcalquier as well as at [his] private observatory, on Lumière Opta and Super S.E. plates". One of 25 numbered copies on Hollande laid paper (n° XVIII), 3rd large paper after 7 copies on chine and 13 on japon impérial. A very well preserved copy, partly uncut. It is complete with the erratum on page 69.