Les voyages organisés par ordre du roi à Versailles

Abstract

This conference will study the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century voyages financed by the French state with a view to acquiring new knowledge on the world outside Europe. This period witnessed radical changes in scientific exploration overseas. During the reign of the Sun King, and under the impetus of Colbert, these academic travellers leaving France, and some French residing in overseas territories, received instructions to better orient their observations and improve the collection of data in order to gather knowledge that would be useful to the state. Small-scale projects prevailed. With the support of royal institutions such as the Académie Royale des Sciences and the Jardin du Roi, people like Charles Plumier, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Louis Éconches Feuillée brought back specimens and descriptions of “useful plants”. Others, like Jean Richer, made astronomical observations in the southern hemisphere, improving not only geographical knowledge, but also cartographic techniques and skills in the field of navigation. Companies expanded under Louis XV. Rivalry with England led the French to the Pacific. Science, exploration and geopolitics were mixed. Large research teams boarded military vessels. The expeditions enriched scientific collections in Versailles and the royal institutions in Paris. Under Louis XVI this process culminated in the expedition of La Pérouse. Three aspects of French science policy in the field of exploration will be analysed in detail: the mechanisms of patronage and protection, the mechanisms of scientific agreement and leveraging the knowledge gathered by travellers.

Keywords

• Académie royale des sciences
• astronomie
• cartographie
• colonies
• géographie
• Jardin du roi