"Une fenêtre sur la ville": Gazing practices in pre-revolutionary Paris

Abstract

This article aims to show the relationship between the scientific discoveries of the XVIII century, especially optics and microbiology, and the rise of the so called “urbanistic literature” at the end of the century. Thanks to the instruments of cultural history, we could find lexical traces of this new realistic approach to the analysis of natural events in some important texts of the period. The way in which these writers described the reality is very important for historians and intellectuals, posing new problems about the history of French Revolution.

Keywords

• Compalit
• lumières
• schermi
• Rétif
• Bretonne
• Mercier
• Rivoluzione francese
• Duquesnoy
• letteratura
• urbanistica
• parigi
• fenêtre
• microscopio