Les carnets de terrain du géographe français Emmanuel de Martonne (1873-1955) : méthode géographique, circulation des savoirs et processus de visualisation

Abstract

In this contribution, we would like to study the aims and the methodology of the fieldwork undertaken by the French geographer Emmanuel de Martonne thanks to his notebooks. Until now these very interesting archivs have not been very used by historians. First we describe the notebooks as scientist material with particuliar status and functions in the frame of Practical Turn methodology. Then we show that notes and drawings take part in the same process of discovery and visualization of the traveled field. We demonstrate that field notebooks are not only a recording platform of describing data but more a tool to think. Besides, thanks to debates and controversies they relate, notebooks allow us to analyze the circulation of geographical knowledge and the international network of geographers. At least, we explain why de Martonne’s field methodology is inherited from the regional geography elaborated by P. Vidal de la Blache.

Keywords

• fieldnotes
• archives
• Emmanuel de Martonne
• history of geography
• observation
• description