1. For an eighteenth-century summary of the secretary's responsibilities, see BA MS. 7464: 48-52. [BACK]

2. Bourdelin referred to Gallois as Colbert's representative: BN MS. n. a. fr. 5147: 108v (20 Nov. 1682). [BACK]

3. AdS, Reg., 9: 5r, 93v-95r, 100v, 101v-3r; 11: 162v (27 Feb. 1686); Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 250-52, 260-61, 400, 421 (2 Dec. 1679, 18 Jan., 31 May 1681); Saunders, Decline and Reform, 120-23. [BACK]

4. Histoire...1722, 128; AdS, dossier "Pierre Couplet"; Wolf, Observatoire, 42-44, 94-95; Ch. Perrault, Mémoires, 47; Cassini, Anecdotes, 290, 304, 309. Other academicians, including Bourdelin, Carcavi, Du Hamel, and Thévenot, shared the responsibility; on Bourdelin, see BN MS. n. a. fr. 5147: 101r (3 Oct. 1681). [BACK]

5. During the 1660s and 1670s, meetings lasted from 3 to 7 or 8 o'clock: Oldenburg, Correspondence, 6: 143. During the 1690s, they were shorter, starting at 2 and ending at 5 o'clock: BN MS. Clairambault 566: 252v. [BACK]

6. Biographical information about academicians in aggregate is based on IB, NBU, Nicéron, Hommes illustres, DSB, and the eulogies by Fontenelle and Condorcet; other sources are indicated in the notes. [BACK]

7. Cipolla, Literacy, 61. Recruitment for the Academy resembled that for the Maurist order, whose monks came mainly from dioceses north of the Loire river: Ultee, Abbey, 46. [BACK]

8. Very few academicians came from outside France. Only seven of sixty-two, or 11 percent, were foreigners, whereas during the eighteenth century foreigners accounted for 36 percent of the members. In the seventeenth century, however, foreign academicians had a better chance of receiving pensions; their eighteenth-century counterparts were usually corresponding members: McClellan, "Académie," 554. [BACK]

9. See, for example, the biography of Gilles Ménage, in his Dictionnaire étymologique. Some of the academicians born in Paris came from families that had only recently moved to the capital. Claude Perrault's lawyer father, for example, came from Tours: Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2: 43. [BACK]

10. Mousnier, Paris au XVIIe siècle; Martin, Livre; Fisher, "Development of London." [BACK]

11. McClellan, "Académie," 554-55; in the eighteenth century most academicians from the provinces were corresponding members. [BACK]

12. See Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2, and Fontenelle, Éloges, for biographies of academicians; Brockliss, French Higher Education; Huppert, Bourgeois Gentilshommes; Martin, Livre; Mousnier, Institutions, 1: 112-210, 236-74. [BACK]

13. Lister, Journey, 97; Hirschfield, Académie, chap. 2; Whitmore, The Order of Minims, 190, 240. On Colbert's hostility to the Jesuits, see Dainville, Géographie des humanistes, 434; Colbert, Lettres, 5: 513-14. Duclos, however, was a Paracelsian. [BACK]

14. Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2: 1-4, 5-15, 33-39. [BACK]

15. Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 378, 264, 204, 129. [BACK]

16. Information about academicians is taken from CdB, Histoire, Historia, IB, DSB, and eulogies by Fontenelle and Condorcet. Other sources are indicated in the notes on individuals. [BACK]

17. On Perrault, see Ch. Perrault, Mémoires, and Hommes illustres, 1: 67-68; Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 33: 258-68; Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2: 43-54; Hallays, Les Perrault; and Cl. Perrault's own Voyage à Bordeaux. [BACK]

18. On Mariotte, see Picolet, "Sur la biographie de Mariotte," 245-76, in Mariotte, savant et philosophe, who corrects previous biographies; Dorveaux, "L'autopsie"; Clair, Rohault, 59; Costabel, "Paradoxe"; Pelseneer, "Petite contribution"; Rochot, "Roberval, Mariotte"; Solovine, "Tricentenaire"; Brunet, "Méthodologie"; Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2: 23-33; Papillon, Bibliothèque, 2: 24-25; Mariotte, Oeuvres; Leibniz, Lettres, 40, 42. Although Mariotte is traditionally listed among the earliest academicians (Mémoires, 10: 307; Gauja, "L'Académie," 299; IB), the minutes, the financial record, and the earliest history of the Academy make it clear that he joined the Academy well after January 1667. He did not hear Perrault read his "projet pour la botanique" that month, he first received a pension in 1668, and Du Hamel himself observed that Mariotte joined the Company late. Watson, "Early Days," 568, identifies Mariotte as the academician wearing a calotte and arguing with Perrault and Pecquet in plate 3. [BACK]

19. On Duclos, see Todériciu, "Sur la vraie biographie de Samuel Duclos"; Nouvelles de la république des lettres (1685); Maindron, L'Acadéie, 4. [BACK]

20. On Dodart, see Clair, Rohault, 59-60; Bourdelot, Conversations; Racine, Oeuvres, 6: 586-87; Saint-Simon, Mémoires, 15: 319, cited in Racine, Oeuvres, 6: 562-63; AdS, dossier "Denis Dodart"; AdS, Reg., 8: 2r-7v, 18: 144r-v; Stroup, Royal Funding, 25-26; Leibniz, Oeuvres, 1: 217, 239, 244, 259. Some of Dodart's notes for the natural history of plants survive in BMHN MSS. 447-51. [BACK]

22. On Nicolas and Jean Marchant, see BU, 26: 486; Roger, Sciences de la vie, 169 n. 35; Bréchot et al., "Note bibliographique"; Laissus and Monseigny, "Les Plantes du Roi"; Paul, Science and Immortality, 129, 176 n. 14; AdS, Reg., 18: 144v (28 Feb. 1699). Manuscripts at BMHN include the inventory of their libraries (MS. 2253) and their notes for the natural history of plants (MSS. 447-51). JdS, 1: 606-7, reviewed Jean Marchant's De Febre Purpurata. [BACK]

23. On Homberg, see Stroup, "Wilhelm Homberg," and Royal Funding, 15 n. 6; Cap, Études biographiques, 2: 214-32; Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 14: 151-67; AdS, Reg., 12: 60r-v (7 May 1687); Leibniz, Lettres, 98; Régis, Cours, 1: 642. [BACK]

24. On Tournefort, see Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 4: 354-71, 10A: 154-55, 10B: 146-47; Tournefort; Clair, Rohault, 60; Callot, "Système"; Leroy, "Tournefort"; Laissus and Laissus, "Tournefort et ses portraits"; Laissus and Monseigny, "Les Plantes du Roi"; Lister, Journey, 62; and BMHN MS. 76, on his demonstrations of plants at the Jardin royal. Many of his manuscripts survive at the BMHN. [BACK]

25. On Borelly, see Chabbert, "Jacques Borelly," and "Pierre Borel"; Clair, Rohault, 59; and Furetière, Recueil des factums, 2: 174. Although Borelly became an academician in 1674, he worked in the laboratory in 1672: BN MS. n. a. fr. 5134: 272-73. [BACK]

26. On Charas, see Salomon-Bayet, "Opiologia"; Cap, Études biographiques, 1: 117-29; Dorveaux, "Grands pharmaciens. 2. Charas"; Nicolas, Histoire littéraire de Nîmes, 1: 357-61; Bouvet, "Apothicaires royaux"; JdS, 2: 475-79; Denis, Recueil, bound with JdS, 3: 74, 81-90. [BACK]

27. On Du Verney, see Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 25: 350-57; Schiller, "Laboratoires"; Lister, Journey, 65, 69 (italics removed); Clair, Rohault, 60. [BACK]

28. On Tauvry, see Hahn, Anatomy, 34; Roger, Sciences de la vie, 171-73; AdS, Reg., 17: 188r, 220r-v, 341r-45r; 18: 1r-4v, 45v-52v, 141v, 198v-99r, 274r (30 Apr., 24 May, 6 Aug., 12 Nov., 10 Dec. 1698, 28 Feb., 1 Apr., 6 May 1699). [BACK]

29. AdS, Reg., 14: 204r (7 Dec. 1695); Lister, Journey, 79-80; Stroup, Royal Funding, 49, 127. [BACK]

30. On Huygens, see his Oeuvres; Bos et al., Studies on Christiaan Huygens; Lister, Journey, 112; Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 19: 214-31; Stroup, "Christiaan Huygens"; Busson, Religion des classiques, 85-87. [BACK]

31. On La Hire père, see Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 5: 335-46, 10B: 160-81; Huygens, Oeuvres, vols. 8, 9, and 10, contain correspondence of La Hire and Huygens and references to La Hire in other letters; Wolf, Observatoire; La Hire, "Description d'un tronc de palmier petrifié." [BACK]

32. On La Hire fils, there is little information; Fontenelle wrote no eulogy but referred in passing to him: Éloges, 276. [BACK]

33. On Sédileau, see Wolf, Observatoire; Condorcet, Oeuvres, 2: 90-91; Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 378 n. 17. [BACK]

34. On Cassini, see his Anecdotes, 257-62; Ch. Perrault, Mémoires; Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 7: 287-322, 10B: 236-48; BU, 133-36; Wolf, Observatoire, 6-7, 23, 71-72, 78-80, 151, 161, 206, 279; Stroup, Royal Funding, documents VII and VIII. [BACK]

35. On Gallois, see Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 8: 153-60; Clair, Rohault, 59; Brunot, Histoire, 4, 1: 23; Sgard et al., Dictionnaire; NBU; DBF; AdS dossier "Jean Gallois"; Ch. Perrault, Mémoires, 45-46; AdS, Reg., 10: 80r-v, 111v; Mémoires, 10: 130-38 (31 July 1692); Neveu, "Vie," 464-65; Leibniz, Lettres, 84, 93, 96. [BACK]

36. On Du Hamel, see NBU; DBF; Nicéron, Hommes illustres, 1: 265-74, 10A: 46-47, says that the additions to the 1701 edition of Historia were translated from Fontenelle's history as published in the annual Histoire et mémoires. [BACK]

37. On Fontenelle, see Marsak, Fontenelle; Paul, Science and Immortality; NBU; DBF; Leibniz, Lettres, 195-235; AdS, Reg., 15: 253r (9 Jan. 1697); Musée du Conservatoire, Histoire et prestige, 59, oversimplifies the relationship between Du Hamel's and Fontenelle's histories. [BACK]

38. On La Chapelle, see Stroup, Royal Funding, 103n. e; Huygens, Oeuvres, 8: 479n. 1; vol. 9 contains correspondence between La Chapelle and Huygens; correspondence in other volumes contains references to La Chapelle. [BACK]

39. Stroup, Royal Funding, chaps. 5-6; he kept abreast of research and attendance by reviewing the minutes, which bear his signature. [BACK]

40. On Bignon, see Saisselin, Literary Enterprise, 86; Clarke, "Bignon," 217, 222; BN MS. fr. 22225; BN MS. Clairambault 566: 186-94; Leibniz, Oeuvres, 1: 289, 308. [BACK]

41. Saunders, Decline and Reform, 116-18, 124-27. [BACK]

42. On Colbert, see Cole, Colbert and Mercantilism; Collas, Chapelain; Ministère de la Culture, Colbert, 1619-1683; Saunders, Decline and Reform, 30; Ch. Perrault, Hommes illustres, 1: 37-39, and Mémoires de ma vie; Colbert, Lettres; Lister, Journey, 128-29, describes Colbert's library; Bertrand, L'Académie et les académiciens, 39-40; Wolf, Observatoire, 115. On Du Hamel's book, his Philosophia vetus et nova, see Busson, Religion des classiques, 72, 75-76. Du Hamel included revision of the book in his annual reports of the Academy's activities: AdS, Reg., 10: 45v-46r, 73v-74r; for the third edition, he sought a contribution by Huygens on the magnet: Huygens, Oeuvres, 8: 479. For a retrospective appreciation in 1691 of Colbert's preference for natural philosophy and mathematics over theology or history, see BN Archives de l'ancien régime 53: 10r. [BACK]

43. On Louvois, see Histoire, 1: 386-87, 2: 132- 33; Saunders, Decline and Reform, 26-130; Bertrand, LAcadémie et les académiciens, 41-44. [BACK]

44. On Pontchartrain, see Berger, "French Administration," "Pontchartrain and the Grain Trade," and "Rural Charity"; Frostin, "L'organisation," and "La famille ministérielle"; Saunders, Decline and Reform, 132-52; Stroup, Royal Funding; Leibniz, Oeuvres, 1: 289; Saint-Simon, Mémoires, 1: 52n. 2, and 6: 268-91; and Bignon's papers at the BN. [BACK]

45. On Louis XIV, see Lavisse, Louis XIV; Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen; Cassini, Anecdotes, 3, 94, 117-19, 289, 291, 292; Wolf, Observatoire, 118-20; Frostin, "L'organisation." Lister, Journey, 214, reported that the king "pleases himself in Planting and Pruning the Trees with his own Hand." [BACK]