Geography and the Paris Academy of Sciences: politics and patronage in early 18th-century France

Heffernan, Michael

Abstract

This essay considers the politics and patronage of geography in early-modern France. It examines how the Paris Academy of Sciences, widely acknowledged as the 18th century's pre-eminent scientific society, came to recognise geography as an independent science in 1730, a century before the establishment of the first geographical societies. Although the Academy was centrally concerned with cartography from its inception in 1666, it initially afforded no official status to geography, which was viewed either as a specialised form of historical inquiry or as a minor component within the hegemonic science of astronomy. The rise of Newtonian mathematics and the associated controversy about the shape of the earth challenged the Academy's epistemological foundations and prompted a debate about the educational and political significance of geography as a scientific practice. The death in 1726 of Guillaume Delisle, a prominent Academy astronomer-cartographer and a popular geography tutor to the young Louis XV, led to a spirited campaign to elect Philippe Buache, Delisle's protégé, to a new Academy position as a geographer rather than an astronomer. The campaign emphasised the social and political utility of geography, though the Academy's decision to recognise this new and distinctively modern science was ultimately facilitated by traditional networks of patronage within the French Royal Court. © 2013 The Author. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers © 2013 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).

Citation

Heffernan, M. (2014). Geography and the Paris Academy of Sciences: politics and patronage in early 18th-century France. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(1), 62-75. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Mar 21, 2013
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2015
• Journal: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
• Print ISSN: 0020-2754
• Electronic ISSN: 1475-5661
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 62-75
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12008
• Keywords: 18th-century geography; scientific patronage; Paris Academy of Sciences; French Royal Court
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/998765
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tran.12008/full
• Additional Information: This is the accepted version of the following article: Heffernan, M. (2014), Geography and the Paris Academy of Sciences: politics and patronage in early 18th-century France. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39: 62–75. doi: 10.1111/tran.12008, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tran.12008/full.
• Contract Date: Feb 26, 2015