Science and government in France, 1661-1699: changing patterns of scientific research and development

Abstract

The thesis aims to describe the involvement of the government of Louis XIV in scientific research in France from 1661 to 1699 and to develop the argument that it was by extending, securing and to an extent inventing, channels for the collection and communication of scientific information that Government most significantly influenced French scientific developments during that period. Those Social, economic and military factors which affected the relationship between
science and government are also described.

Since the Acad8mie des Sciences, instituted by the Crown in 1666, was at the centre of scientific activity in France, the largest part of this study concentrates on its history under the successive administrations of Colbert, Louvois and Pontchartrain, Louis XIV's chief ministers. Much unpublished material is analysed and Louvois shown to have been more sympathetic to the sciences than is generally supposed. The history of government involvement in the Jardin Royal des Plantes is also examined.

The period 1661-1699 also saw many more government-financed expeditions of scientific interest than are normally described by historians of Science; these .expeditions constitute an important means by which Government helped to extend the scientific information-gathering process world-wide.

Important in the context of the thesis are those who figure little in intellectual histories of the period: the assistants of the Academie des Sciences and the inventors, geographers, travellers, skilled craftsmen and others, who were involved with either the Academie des Sciences or the Jardin Royal. Many of them were employed by Government and were referred to those institutions in the course of their professional duties o The Academy's assistants are particularly interesting since many remained only a few years before leaving to work as government engineers or as royal naval instructors.

Date of Award	1983
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Alan Gabby (Supervisor)