Le Voyage entravé : enjeux épistémiques de l’obstacle naturel dans l’Histoire des plantes de la Guiane françoise de Jean-Baptiste Christophe Fusée-Aublet

Abstract

The expedition to Guiana by the French botanist Jean-Baptiste Christophe Fusée-Aublet (1723-1778) was a fruitful one, as he brought back many little-known plant samples as well as new knowledge about the Guianese plant landscape. While the results of this expedition are undeniably positive and led to the publication of a major work for the scientific community, the journey itself was laborious for the botanist who had to adapt quickly to the specificities of this new and hostile environment. Based on the Histoire des plantes de la Guiane françoise (1775) and on some extracts from Aublet's journals, we will examine the way in which these physical and psychological obstacles that the traveler-botanist was confronted with in French Guiana both conditioned his scientific method and determined certain writing choices.

Keywords

• 18th century
• Guyana
• botanist
• traveler
• obstacles