Identifiant pérenne de la notice : 208156941
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Note publique d'information : The royal Parisian botanical garden, the Jardin du Roi, was a jewel in the crown of
the French Old Regime, praised by both rulers and scientific practitioners. Yet unlike
many such institutions, the Jardin not only survived the French Revolution but by
1800 had become the world's leading public establishment of natural history: the Muséum
d'Histoire Naturelle. E. C. Spary traces the scientific, administrative, and political
strategies that enabled the foundation of the Muséum, arguing that agriculture and
animal breeding rank alongside classification and collections in explaining why natural
history was important for French rulers. But the Muséum's success was also a consequence
of its employees' Revolutionary rhetoric: by displaying the natural order, they suggested,
the institution could assist in fashioning a self-educating, self-policing Republican
people. Natural history was presented as an indispensable source of national prosperity
and individual virtue. Spary's fascinating account opens a new chapter in the history
of France, science, and the Enlightenment.
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