Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Apr 2015)
G. Romme and P. S. Pallas: A Story of Scientists’ Friendship
Abstract
The author examines one of the obscure pages of the biography of the prominent French revolutionary Gilbert Romme (1750–1795) during his stay in Russia (1779–1786) as tutor of the young count P. A. Stroganov, namely his relationship with the famous Russian natural scientist Peter Simon Pallas. The main source of this work was the Franco-Russian publication of Romme’s private archive, which the author of the article takes part in. The analysis of Pallas’ letters to Romme shows that the latter was accepted by Russian scientists in their professional community as an equal in spite of his lack of real research experience, only for his erudition and desire to carry out such research. Though his personal scientific work was not crowned with any noticeable success, he proved to be a valuable intermediary in the international exchange of scientific information, geological and botanical materials between the Russian and French researchers. The analysis of the relations of Romme and Pallas demonstrates such a specific feature of the Russian scientific community of the time as openness, which was a contrast to the utterly closed professional community of French scientists.
