Preferred Citation: Stroup, Alice. A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft587006gh/


 
NOTES

Chapter 15 Academicians and the Larger Scientific Community

1. Tournefort's correspondents, for example, wrote from Leiden, The Hague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Venice, Rome, Bologna, Oxford, Martinique, Hamburg, Leipzig, Zurich, Basel, Palermo, Florence, and Lisbon, as well as France: BMHN MS. 253: 1-2r.

2. Mariotte, Essai de logique, in Oeuvres, 2: 612.

3. Historia, 6; Mariotte, Essai de logique, in Oeuvres, 2: 610.

4. Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 12: 96-102, quotation on p. 101.

5. Clair, Rohault, 46; Huygens never understood his own indebtedness to clockmakers: Leopold, "Christiaan Huygens and His Instrument Makers.

6. Raven, John Ray.

7. André and Bourgeois, Recueil ... Hollande, 1: 410-11; NBU, 10: 169, 43: 379-80; Stroup, Royal Funding, 45n. 20, 56.

8. Mariotte, Essai de logique, in Oeuvres, 2: 610-12.

9. Mariotte, Vegétation, 121. Lantin was conseiller to the Burgundian parlement and may have been the "Lentier" of the parlement of Dijon who participated in Bourdelot's scientific meetings, in which case he would also have known Dodart: Bourdelot, Conversations. See Picolet, "Sur la biographie de Mariotte," 246, 270n. 14, in Mariotte, savant et philosophe; Oldenburg, Correspondence, 5: 37-41, 74, 196-97; Leibniz, Lettres, 27, 44, 97, 111-18.

10. Le Febvre, Compleat Body; BN MS. n. a. fr. 1967: 191r-235v (1639-63), written from Montpellier and Paris.

11. BN MS. fr. 19658: 37r-38v (10 Apr. 1686).

12. Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, 5: 315-16n. 1, 328-29; 6: 156-66.

13. Seen. 1, above, and BMHN MSS. 252; 998: f. 1, p. 389; 1105; 1391.

14. BN MSS. fr. 17051: 78r-82v, 84r-v, 153r-54v, 181r-82v, 192r-93v, 211r-12v; fr. 17052: 231r-v; fr. 17054: 206r-12v, 234r-35v, 259r, 260r, 263r, 288v, 292r-v, 302r, 311v-12r, 422r-23v, 453r, 487r, 491r-92v, 532r.

15. Histoire, 1: 12.

16. Lister became friendly with the Geoffroy family during his 1698 visit and corresponded with both father and son: Bodleian MS. Lister 2: 56, 58-59. Bourde, Agronomie et agronomes, 1: 81; Raven, John Ray, 209, 212, says that Sloane studied at Montpellier, where he met Tournefort; Sloane later conveyed Tournefort's feelings of respect to the English botanist Ray. See also Lough, France Observed, and Cohen, "Isaac Newton, Hans Sloane."

17. Mémoires, 10: 84-90; Fontenelle's eulogy' of Homberg; Stroup, "Wilhelm Homberg."

18. Vines and Druce, Morisonian Herbarium, xxv; Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature, 1: 119-27.

19. Huygens, Oeuvres, 3: 358.

20. Ibid., 3: 295.

21. Bodleian MS. Smith 52: 15-18. A. R. Hall, "Henry Oldenburg et les relations scientifiques an XVIIe siècle."

22. For Roemer, see AdS, Reg., 8: 220r-v, 221r (28 June, 5 July 1679); for Du Hamel, see his De consensu veteris et novae philosophiae (Oxford, 1669), and Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 398: 150, printed in Hart, Notes on a Century of Typography, 155. Thévenot's surviving correspondence in England treats mainly books and manuscripts, reflecting perhaps his responsibilities at the Bibliothèque duroi: Bodleian MS. Smith 130: 10, 11, and MS. Smith 11: 15r-v.

23. Fontenelle, Éloges, 107; Bodleian MSS. Lister 2: 153-54, 155-56 (1687), 137 (1698); MS. Ashmole 1816: 67 (1697). Lhwyd also corresponded with G. Roussel: Bodleian MS. Ashmole 1817 A: 364-68. BMHN MS. 1989 (J. Woodward, 15 Mar. 1696); Bodleian MS. Ashmole 1817 A: 450 (William Sherard, May 1701); see also Bodleian MS. Radcliffe Trust C.2: 15r-v (Bobart to Richardson).

24. See Bodleian Sherard d. 84; Nehemiah Grew, Anatomy of Plants, preface; Harrison and Laslett, Library of John Locke, 125, no. 980 (now at the Bodleian). Locke owned books by other academicians; see ibid., nos. 789, 1380, 1381, 1907, 1908, 1908a, and 2259.

25. Locke, Travels, xxxix , xl, xlii, 251, 252, 254, 256, 261, 263, 275, 282. Auzout informed Locke about weights and measures, the Parisian bills of mortality, and medical remedies; Picard discussed pendulum clocks and a universal foot; Roemer demonstrated his model of Jupiter and its satellites, a level, and a tinder box; from Charas, Locke picked up medical ideas.

26. Ibid., 160-61, 272. This plant was included in N. Marchant's descriptions and engravings of rare flora printed with Dodart's Mémoires des plantes.

27. Juillard, "Société Royale," 85, 87. This may have followed Mariotte's request for help and perhaps explains how he came to have correspondence from Aberdeen on the subject of winds; see the treatise in his Oeuvres.

28. See, for example, the following Bodleian MSS.: Radcliffe Trust C. 3: 54 (Sherard to Richardson); Radcliffe Trust C. 4: 67, 68, 70, 84, 85; Radcliffe Trust C.5: 23, 24, 106, 107, 112, 113 (Sherard to Richardson); English History C. 11: 14. (Jacob Bobart to E. Lhwyd, May 1698); Radcliffe Trust C. 1: 48, 69 (Sherard to Richardson); Ashmole 1816: 128 (M. Lister to Lhwyd). Like the Marchants, La Quintinie accumulated fruits from abroad: Bourde, Agronomie et agronomes, 1: 86-87.

29. Bourde, Agronomie et agronomes, 1: 82. La Quintinie traveled twice to England and was offered the patronage of Charles II.

30. AdS, Reg., 10: 110v (29 July 1682), communicated by Mariotte.

31. On Bishop Henry Compton, see Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature, 1: 144.

32. Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 371:83. Dr. William Briggs wrote to Fagon that he hoped to discover microscopically "la texture la plus fine et la plus delicate des liqueurs et des parties solides, qui composent le Corps humain." He intended to publish an English account dedicated to the English king, and a French translation dedicated to Louis XIV.

33. For Huygens's correspondence with Boyle, see Maddison,"Studies in the Life of Robert Boyle." For Huygens's correspondence with English acquaintances on matters relevant to botany, see his Oeuvres, 3: 311, 384; 4: 201, 358; 5: 4, 58, 75; 7: 39, 473, 506, 528; 8: 311, 317. Huygens also wrote to other nonacademicians about botany: ibid., 2: 468; 3: 347-48; 4: 279; 9: 147-48; 10: 304.

34. Huygens, Oeuvres, 8:38 (Oct. 1677); Dodart urged Huygens to express special gratitude to Leeuwenhoek, adding, "it seems to me that persons of this merit ought to receive a pension as external academicians." Leeuwenhoek became a corresponding member of the Academy in 1699.

35. AdS, Reg., 1: 248-49 (18 Jan. 1668).

36. See Huygens, Oeuvres, 7: 87-93 (1 Aug. 1671), for example. Auzout's correspondence with Oldenburg covers little more than the period during which he was also an academician, perhaps because he conveyed news in a quasi-official capacity: Oldenburg, Correspondence, 2-5 (from January 1665 until January 1669); Histoire, 1: 11; A. R. Hall, "Henry Oldenburg et les relations scientifiques an XVIIe siècle," 297.

37. Bertrand, "Les Académies d'autrefois," 339; Roger, Sciences de la vie, 179, identifies the emergence of "la vérité officielle, celle qu'établissent à Paris Messieurs de l'Académie des sciences, à Londres Messieurs de la Société royale."

38. AdS, Reg., 1: 200: "On a aussy arresté que routes les choses qui seront proposées dans l'assemblée demeureront secrettes, que l'on ne communiquera rien an dehors que du consentement de la Compagnie" (19 Jan. 1667). Despite infractions, and recommendations during the 1680s that the Company publish extracts from its registers, the rule was not officially modified: ibid., 12: 19r (13 Nov. 1686).

39. Ibid., 12: 98v-99r (18 Aug. 1688). In 1691, however, when Pontchartrain asked the Academy to publish two articles a month, academicians found the burden too great, and were able to produce articles of sufficient merit for only two years before requesting a respite, on the grounds that they were too few to produce so much: ibid., 13: 71v-73r (19, 22 Dec. 1691); Saunders, Decline and Reform, 166-70; Stroup, Royal Funding, 50-51.

40. Brown, Scientific Organizations, 156.

41. Oldenburg, Correspondence, 4:29, 31. Justel himself both criticized and praised the Academy in the 1660s and 1670s: BN MS. 15189: 141r and passim.

42. Stimson, Scientists and Amateurs, 70-96; Purver, Royal Society, passim.

43. Rohault has sometimes been taken as the model for one of M. Jourdain's teachers in Molière's Le bourgeois gentilhomme; Clair, Rohault, 33-36, argues against that view.

44. See, for example, Huygens, Oeuvres, 7: 253-54.

45. BN MS. fr. 1333: 1r-42v, contains Duclos's manuscript, 42v-44r, the committee's decision. As Duclos recalled the incident on his deathbed, Du Hamel had opposed publication: Nouvelles de la république des lettres 4 (Oct. 1685), 1152-55; Stubbs, "Chemistry at L'Académie," 24. The Royal Society also examined the books of its members, but its policy, as Moray construed it, was to verify the factual claims of the author without judging whether the book merited publication. Corroboration of the evidence might delay, but not prevent the appearance of a book; thus Moray explained to Huygens why Digby's discourse on vegetation had not been printed seven months after its author had read it at Gresham College: Huygens, Oeuvres, 3: 285 (1 July 1661).

46. AdS, Reg., 10: 28v-29r (10 July 1680).

47. Ibid., 12: 98v-99r (18 Aug. 1688).

48. Saunders, Decline and Reform, 125-26.

49. Historia, 6; Histoire, 1: 15-16; cf. Hagstrom, Scientific Community, 12-16.

50. Middleton, Experimenters, 300.

51. Histoire, 1: 15

52. Jean Marchant feared foreigners would copy the Academy's engravings of plants before the natural history could be finished: BN MS. fr. 22225: 62v.

53. BMHN MS. 89: dossier 2, draft of letter, probably late 1670s.

54. AdS, Reg., 12: 41v-42r (14 June 1687); cf. 22r, 23v, 45r (7, 14 Dec. 1686, 19 July 1687).

55. Purver, Royal Society, 13-14, 179.

56. Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 165-66, 213. Compare G. A. Borelli's and M. Ricci's sentiment that the Accademia del Cimento should reveal "the conclusions found and demonstrated by us ... withholding and keeping secret the arguments and demonstrations. In this manner ... we can be certain that ... priority ... cannot be taken away." Quoted in Middleton, Experimenters, 301.

57. Middleton, Experimenters, 289, 291-92, 295; Neveu, "Vie," 461.

58. Sarton, Six Wings, 265n. 16.

59. Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 91 (8 Sept. 1686); AdS, Reg., 10: 81v, 83v-85v (4, 5 Dec. 1681); Saunders, Decline and Reform, 89.

60. The death of the printer Cramoisy in June 1687 and La Hire's illness in the winter of 1687-1688 delayed publication: Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 165-66, 262-63.

61. Articles by Huygens, Cassini, Mariotte, and Perrault were translated for the Phil. Trans., and the books of Perrault, Mariotte, La Hire, Du Verney, Duclos, Huygens, Blondel, Tournefort, Cassini, Charas, and Du Hamel were reviewed there. Hooke reviewed favorably the 1679 edition of Dodart's Mémoires des plantes in his Philosophical Collections, 1: 39-42.

62. Urban Hiärne referred to the Academy's chemical laboratory in reporting on his own research in the royal chemical laboratory in Stockholm, after learning about the size and quality of the Academy's laboratory from Erik Odhelius, who wrote from Dijon in 1692. Hiärne was familiar with Dodart's chemical work and cited Dodart's results where they differed from his own. See Hiärne's Actorum laboratotii Stockholmensis, 3, 31-34; and Lindroth, "Urban Hiärne och Laboratorium Chymicum," 55n. 7.

63. The works of Mariotte, Perrault, and especially Tournefort were known to the Swedish botanists. The Propagatio plantarum published in 1686 by Olof Rudbeck the younger is said to have been influenced directly by Mariotte and indirectly by Perrault, through the intermediary of Dedu's L'âme des plantes. Lars Robert, Magnus von Bromell, Jacob Ludenius, and others were influenced by Tournefort; Bromell attended Tournefort's lectures at the Jardin royal and joined his herborizations in 1702: Eriksson, Botanikens historia i Sverige, 80-81, 83, 113, 115-16, 124-29, 149, 160, 164, 166-69, 174-75. Tournefort's influence was also felt in Finland, where copies of his books have survived: Hjelt, Naturalhistoriens studium vid Åbo Universitet, 22, 66, 68, 90, 105, and Naturhistoriens studium i Finland

64. Sachs, History of Botany, 403 (1890 ed.). On Tournefort's influence, see Bodleian MS. Radcliffe Trust C. 2: 15r-v (letter from James Bobart to R. Richardson); Bodleian MSS. Lat. Misc. C. 11, D. 25, and E. 28 and 31 (English manuscripts based on Tournefort's Institutiones); Laissus and Monseigny, "Les Plantes du Roi," 209; BMHN MSS. 10, 16, 17, 18, 797, 1032, 1093, 1146; Marion, Recherches sur les bibliothèques privées à Paris; BN MSS. fr. 21773: 299, and n. a. fr. 4732; Boccone, Museo di piante, 2, 61-62.

65. To avoid embarrassment, the Academy reviewed works by lesser figures, as for example when Duclos assessed Pinault's Traité de jardinage: AdS, Reg., 6: 48r-57v (9 Mar. 1669); Histoire, 1: 85; or when Dodart proposed that Gardrois be allowed to dedicate a book on natural philosophy to the Academy: AdS, Reg., 8: 15r, 37v (20 Feb., 13 Mar. 1675); see also nn. 96 and 116, below. When the Jesuit Gouye dedicated his "Theses de mathematique en forme de livre" to the Academy in 1686, academicians held a special session: ibid., 12: 6r, 8r-v (8 June, 3 July 1686). Mathurin Dissés dedicated his analyses of the mineral waters of Granssac and Fenayrols to the academician Jacques Borelly in 1686 and 1687: Chabbert, "Jacques Borelly," 226-27. Pardies dedicated his Élémens de géométrie to the Academy in 1671. Leibniz dedicated his Hypothesis physica nova (London, 1671) to both the Royal Society and the Academy, and became a member of each two and four years later, respectively; his book was reviewed in PhiL Trans., 6: 22-23.

66. Evidence about the efforts of Leibniz, Hautefeuille, and Boccone is given in Stroup, "Louis XIV," n. 34. See also Michaud, Biographie universelle, 18: 556-57, and Locke, Travels, 250, on Hautefeuille; Huygens, Oeuvres, 8: 173, 218-19, and Leibniz's correspondence during 1690s, on Papin and Leibniz; AdS, Reg., 8: 160r, 218v, on Boccone; and Boccone's works

67. AdS, Reg., 8: 183r (27 July 1678), printed in Huygens, Oeuvres, 22: 256; AdS, Reg., 11: 158v, 159r, 165v (6, 13 Feb., 6 Mar. 1686); 12: 3v, 5r, 7r, 14v-17v (22, 29 May, 15 June 1686); Histoire, 1: 448 (1685); 2: 14-15, 33-36, 110, 191 (1686, 1687, 1690, 1693); Historia, 256, 276-77, 337. The marine officer de Gennes brought "un modelle d'une machine pour faire de la toile par un simple mouvement des roües," probably the mechanical loom that he published in JdS the same year: AdS, Reg., 8: 172v-73r (18 May 1678); Daumas, ed., History of Technology, 2: 216-17; Ministère de la Culture, Colbert, 1619-1683, 172. Saint Hilaire and others proposed methods of desalinating water: AdS, Reg., 10: 75v, 76r-77r (30 July, 6 Aug. 1681); Histoire, 1: 320-21 (1681), Historia, 200-201; Colbert, Lettres, 3, 1: 238-39.

68. Videl de la Bavaniere, whose name was also given as de la Javaniere Videl, visited twice, the second time to discuss the tides of Saint Malo: Histoire, 1: 427 (1685), 2: 42 (1688). See also ibid., 1: 482, and Historia, 245 (1685), on de la Garouste or Carouze; Histoire, 1: 321-22 (1681), on Hubin.

69. Huygens, Oeuvres, 7: 253-54.

70. For remedies, see AdS, Reg., 13: 3r. For eclipses, see ibid., 14: 20r, and n. 85, below. For curious phenomena, see ibid., 13: 145v (26 Aug. 1693); Historia, 276, 310 (1692); Histoire, 2: 91, 140, 147 (1690, 1692). Academicians themselves were not exempt from the fascination for the curious: Dodart described the composition and appearance of floating islands at Saint Omer: AdS, Reg., 10: 47v (4 Sept. 1680). Perrault published a description of two unusual pears: ibid., 8: 40v (5 June 1675); JdS (1675): 166-67; Mémoires, 10: 552-54. This found its counterpart in an unsolicited letter to Sédileau describing a second such pear: AdS, Reg., 12: 89v-90r (12 June 1688). Thorndike, History of Magic, 8, chap. 30, emphasizes the enthusiasm for such reports of unrelated and bizarre phenomena during the seventeenth century; Daston and Park, "Unnatural Conceptions," show how that enthusiasm was transformed. For an experiment, see AdS, Reg., 10: 15r-v (3 Apr. 1678), which describes distillation of some matter from the bubo of a plague victim, and ibid., 8: 150r-v (1678), which gives a recipe for bread made with earth, sent by de Vinkeller.

71. As for example, the letter about a pear (n. 70, above) and a paper on ginseng (n. 93, below). A correspondent from Villefranche sent Borelly a paper "on the analysis of the nature of plants," recommending water of chalk (eau de chaux) as a solvent for extracting the sulphurous part of plants: AdS, Reg., 10: 21r (5 June 1680).

72. See tables 1 and 3-10 for payments made to these practitioners. On Deglos, Varin, and Des Hayes, see Colbert, Lettres, 5: 421, and n. 3; Wolf, Observatoire, 143-45; Olmsted, "Voyage of Jean Richer," n. 51.

73. Table 3; Stroup, Royal Funding, 43, 45n. 20, 56, 140-41.

74. Bodleian MS. Lister 3: 56-68; Wolf, Observatoire, 152, 154; Cassini, Anecdotes.

75. Ch. Perrault, Mémoires, 46. Charles Perrault unfairly includes Richer in this category, reflecting the Academy's disappointment with Richer after he returned from Cayenne. For a rehabilitation of this able astronomer, see Olmsted, "Scientific Expedition" and "Voyage of Jean Richer."

76. On Du Vivier, see AdS, Reg., 9: 110v (Aug. 1680-June 1681); Histoire, 1: 159, 199; Ministère de la Culture, Colbert, 1619-1683, 182.

77. Perrault, Mémoires, 47; for a summary of the duties of the usher (huissier) in 1714, see BA MS. 4624

78. Chazelles helped to measure the earth in 1683 (see table 4), was professor of hydrography in Marseilles, sent measurements of latitude and longitude in the Mediterranean to Cassini, and became an academician in 1695: Stroup, Royal Funding, 54, 55, 77-78.

79. Bertrand, L'Académie et les académiciens, 5.

80. Oldenburg, Correspondence, 5: 507 (11 May 1669); cited also by Brown, Scientific Organizations, 158. This was only shortly after Cassini's arrival in Paris; Vernon also reports that Cassini told him the Academy met on Wednesdays and Fridays, but in fact it met on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In June 1668, Lorenzo Magalotti wrote to Prince Leopold: "At the Royal Academy [of Sciences], which meets on Saturdays at the house of Monsieur Carcavi, His Majesty's librarian, I have found nobody who has offered to introduce me, and I have not recommended myself for admission at all, my ambition being extremely moderate in that direction." Quoted from Middleton, Experimenters, 32-33. Stubbs, "Chemistry at L'Académie," 27, says that visitors were not admitted until the 1670s.

81. Brown, Scientific Organizations, 159, states that Vernon was admitted to a meeting, but Vernon's letter of 12 June 1669 (Oldenburg, Correspondence, 6: 6) says only that he visited Huygens's apartment at the King's Library and while there had the chance to observe the dissection of a horse by Pecquet and Gaignan [sic for Gayant?], which Gallois recorded and Perrault drew. De Gennes described two experiments, one having to do with the vegetation of plants: AdS, Reg., 8: 172v-73r (1678); he later traveled to Africa and the Americas with Prozer, who showed the Academy drawings of plants the two had observed: Historia, 451 (1697); Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen, 225. The Academy might hold special sessions for visiting princes and dignitaries — AdS, Reg., 12: 22v (ambassadors from Siam, 7 Dec. 1686); and Histoire, 2: 103 (James II, 1690)F— thereby honoring both parties; Cosimo de'Medici seems merely to have visited the Library: Oldenburg, Correspondence, 6: 250 (1669)

82. Historia (1683, 1687); Histoire, 1:361 (1683, with Mariotte), and 2:20 (1687); AdS, Reg., 12: 60r-v (7 May 1687).

83. Historia; Papin had been a fellow of the Royal Society since November 1682.

84. Histoire, 2: 1-2 (1686)

85. Archives de l'Observatoire, Archives, B, 4, 9: 22, 28 June, 9 July 1694, 23 Nov. 1695, 18 May, 11 Nov. 1696, 7 Jan., 31 Oct. 1697, 16 Mar., 12 Apr., 27 Sept. 1699, 24 Feb. 1701. Letters from Gallet, Bonfa, and others are also found in full or summarized in AdS, Reg., from the 1680s, and in Histoire et mémoires ... 1699-1710.

86. Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 125, 124, 143. Informants were to be acknowledged in the description: BMHN MS. 450: 77r: "de quila tenons nous? il ne faut jamais obmettre cela dans les plantes nouvelles." On ergotism and the remède des pauvres, see chap. 13, above. Bourdelin had a similar plan for encouraging physicians to send samples and information about mineral waters: BN MS. n.a. fr. 5133: 31.

87. AdS, Reg., 11: 114v-16v (16, 20 Dec. 1684, 17, 20 Jan. 1685).

88. Mémoires, 4: 325-33; 7, 2: 605-875.

89. Ibid., 10: 130. See also AdS, Reg., 13: 71v, 81v, 105v-6r; 14: 2v (15 Dec. 1691, 27 Feb., 12 July 1692, 21 Nov. 1693).

90. Colbert, Lettres, 5: 304, 314, 315-16, 320-21, 332, 336, 421, 425; AdS, Reg., 7: 255v (15 July 1679). Durasse, ambassador to Constantinople, wrote to Cassini in 1685 about "dactyles" he had seen in stones: ibid., 11: 128r (16 May 1685).

91. AdS, Reg., 10: 19v, 22r-25v (22 May 1680): letters from Antoine Galland to Dodart, written 24 Apr. 1680 in response to Dodart's request of 15 June 1679, and read by Perrault at a meeting. For an autobiographical sketch of Galland, see BN MS. fr. 15189: 78r-82r.

92. AdS, Reg., 16: 131v-32v (18 May 1697); Historia, 451; Prozer presented the drawings.

93. AdS, Reg., 17: 38r-39v (27 Nov. 1697); Historia, 451 (1697).

94. Nicolas Marchant, Descriptions de quelques plantes nouvelles, 247, 252, 256, 259, 276, 278, 284, 295, 309, 316, 321; AdS, Reg., 7: 234r; 8: 154v-55r; 10: 17r, 44r-v, 72r-v, 82v-83r, 109r; 11: 116v-17r, 124r, 125v; Huygens, Oeuvres, 8: 311, 317; Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C. 982: 27a and 28b. The plants Richer brought back are mentioned in AdS, Reg., 8: 40v, and 7: 124v.

95. Marchant, Descriptions de quelques plantes nouvelles, 245 ("Avertissement"): "These papers still lack several observations that the Company hopes to make this year [1676]. This delay may serve at least to provide able persons abroad with the time to send us their advice on all that we propose, before the Academy has produced anything."

96. Histoire, 1: 79 (1669); AdS, Reg., 8: 15r, 37r (13 Feb., 6 Mar. 1675, Needham); 10: 57v(8 Jan. 1681). G. A. Borelli's book on motion was selected for study: ibid., 14: 73v (12 Mar. 1695). Minor books reviewed during meetings included Pierre Le Givre's Le secret des eaux minérales (AdS, Reg., 1: 57-70; see Éloy, Dictionnaire de la médecine, 2: 104); see also n. 65, above. Surprisingly, the minutes do not mention Newton's Principia, and Newton's name appears there only rarely, once in connection with the visit of James II to the Observatory: Bertrand, "Les Académies d'autrefois," 427-28; Wolf, Observatoire, 129; see also Cohen, "Isaac Newton, Hans Sloane."

97. The translations cover the period from March 1668 to March 1670: Costabel, "Le registre académique 'Journaux d'Angleterre' et Mariotte," 321-25, in Mariotte, savant et philosophe.

98. Huygens, Oeuvres, 5: 283; 7: 11-12; 22: 700.

99. AdS, Reg., 4: 197r-v, 241r-46r, 252r-56v, 257r-59v, 295r-99r, 300r-309r, 318r-27v, 328r-32v; 6: 1r-6v, 7r-13r, 14r-20r, 21r-27r, 39r-47r (5, 12, 19, 26 Jan., 23 Feb. 1669); Histoire, 1: 79-81 (1669). BN MS. fr. 1333: 238r-62v, contains Duclos's "Remarques sur les Essais physiologiques de Boyle," with the date July 1668.

100. * Note: Due to information obtained after Stroup, Royal Funding was published, there are minor discrepancies between data in tables 1, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, and the figures in the earlier analysis of the Academy's finances.

101. For The Origine of Forms and Qualities, see ibid., 1: 93-104, 107-16, 204-5 (26 Mar., 2, 16 Apr. 1667); Histoire, 1: 23-24 (1667); Multhauf, The Origins of Chemistry, 305. For New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, see AdS, Reg., 4: 27r (19 May 1668): Duclos reported on Boyle's experiments with the vacuum, Picard discussed those reported by the Accademia del Cimento, and then "la Compagnie a jugé que la matiere du vuide avoit esté suffisamment examinée et quil falloit passer a quelque autre matiere." For the Aerial Noctiluca (on phosphorus), see ibid., 10: 58r, 61r, 64r-v, 73r (22 Jan., 26 Feb., 16 Apr. 1681, Aug. 1680-June 1681); BN MS. n. a. fr. 5147: 100v, 103v, 104v (7 June 1681, 30 Mar., 5 May 1682); Homberg revived the study of phosphorus in the 169Os: Bertrand, L'Académie et les académiciens, 39; Leibniz, Lettres, 98, 107, 211-12. For the dissertation on desalinization, see Histoire, 1: 387-89 (1684). For an essay in Phil. Trans., see AdS, Reg., 8: 77r (4 Mar. 1676), on the dissolution of copper by spirit of sal armoniac; 78v (18 Mar. 1676) on the increase of weight in certain substances. Du Hamel discussed Boyle in his De corporum affectionibus: JdS (1671): 614-16.

102. For individual experiments, see AdS, Reg., 11: 27r (1 Dec. 1683), on desalinating sea water; cf. AdS, Cartons 1666-1793, 1, 9: 89-91. In 1678 one of the proposals for future work was to investigate Boyle's experiments "dans les vaisseaux scellez hermetiquement": AdS, Reg., 8: 190v (23 Nov. 1678). Borelly analyzed Boyle's work on the hidden qualities of air: ibid., 10: 71r (Aug. 1680-June 1681).

103. Histoire, 1: 79 (1669); Historia (1698 ed.), 15. Partington, History of Chemistry, 2: 497, mistakenly assumes that Boyle's Sceptical Chymist was in question, but it was Certain Physiological Essays (Tentamina Chymica); see n. 99, above.

104. BMHN MS. 448: 40.

105. AdS, Reg., 8: 154v, 167v (30 Mar. 1678).

106. Mémoires, 10: 122, 124, 125; see chap. 11, above, for Tournefort's views. The Academy did not formally discuss Grew's Anatomy of Plants until 6 May 1699, when Geoffroy presented a copy of the book from Grew and read his own excerpt of it: AdS, Reg., 18: 274r. Correspondence at the Bodleian Library suggests Geoffroy's extensive English contacts; see n. 16, above.

107. Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 241.

108. Phil. Trans., 2 (1667-1668): 455, 797-99; 3-4 (1669): 853-62, 913-16, 963-65; 5 (1670-71): 1165-67, 1199, 2067-77; 6 (1671): 2119-28, 2144-49. Cf. AdS, Reg., 12: 130r (23 Mar. 1689); Mariotte, Végétation; Perrault, Circulation.

109. For academicians' studies of plant germination, see AdS, Reg., 8: 151v (23 Mar. 1678); 7: 158r-v (14 May 1678); Historia, 170; Mariotte, Végétation, 128-29, 137, 139; Perrault, Circulation, 89, 106-8, 118-19, 123-24; cf. Grew, Anatomy of Plants; discussed in chap. 11, above.

110. The difficulty of distinguishing between plants and animals was keenly felt in attempts to identify kermes and cochineal. For academicians' views, see: Histoire, 2: 206-7, 280; Historia, 339, 420; AdS, Reg., 14: 8r (20 Feb. 1694); 17: 176r (16 Apr. 1698, La Hire, with information from Guatemala). For the views of Martin Lister, John Ray, R. Reed, and Verchant (an apothecary in Montpellier), see Phil. Trans. 1 (1666): 362-63; 2 (1668): 796-97; 6 (1671): 2133, 2165-66, 2196-97, 2254-57, 2284-85; 7 (1672): 5059-60; AdS, Reg., 14: 201r-v (23 Nov. 1695, Verchant). On kermes, see also Locke, Travels, 43-44, 94, 95, 99 100, 101; Locke knew Verchant during the 1670s, but another savant stimulated Locke's interest in kermes. Coral presented a similar problem: Méoires, 10: 123 (Tournefort); cf. Boccone, "Account of some Natural Curiosities," and Recherches, 1: 1-46, 2: 43.

111. Perrault, Circulation, 90-91, 92, 122; La Hire's claims about valves are reported in Histoire, 2: 184-86. Grew's Anatomy ... Begun was reviewed in Phil. Trans.,6 (1671): 3037-43.

112. Compare La Hire's paper of 1694 on the origin of springs, which examined Plot's work on the subject: Histoire, 2: 204; Mémoires ... 1703, 56-69.

113. Lister noticed how isolated French savants were from both England and Italy: Journey, 74-75, 97, but cf. 132. See also Roger, Sciences de la vie, 174-77, on French ignorance of English and Dutch developments.

114. Stimson, Scientists and Amateurs, 75; A. R. Hall, From Galileo to Newton, 138.

115. A catalogue of Tournefort's library during the late 1680s survives: BMHN MS. 253. For the library of Nicolas and Jean Marchant, see BMHN MSS. 447 and 2253.

116. One scholar, a Philippe Billemet or Billemot who sent his unpublished "petit traité d'astronomie" to the Academy, asked for protection from "nostre illustre compagnie," which he compared to "une cour souveraine dans la republique des lettres": AN M 849, no. 18: 1. Pardies compared the Academy to a Chinese court of judges in his Élémens de géométrie: Ziggelaar, Le physicien Ignace Gaston Pardies, 51.


NOTES
 

Preferred Citation: Stroup, Alice. A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft587006gh/