La république naturaliste : les collections françaises d'histoire naturelle sous la Révolution : 1789-1804

Abstract

Charles C. Gillispie saw the metamorphosis of the Jardin du Roi into the Muséum d’histoire naturelle as an “epitome of the French Revolution in botanical microcosm” – in other words, a historical object belonging to the realm of culture and science marked by the immense event. The years 1789-1804 were a key-period in the establishment of French collections of natural history. The period was characterized by an intense circulation of specimens: the specimens which were collected or confiscated, exchanged or purchased, converged towards the Muséum d’histoire naturelle, while a portion of the duplicates from the national collections were sent to the départements. In these large-scale movements, the confiscations of aristocratic, ecclesiastical and foreign cabinets played a major role, as did the consignments sent to the Écoles centrales. The Muséum was then the centre around which the collecting and the subsequent dispersal of the specimens was organized and Paris became at one point the undisputed capital of natural history in Europe. The dissertation aims to study what is at stake in the transfer of the collections of the old cabinets to the Paris Muséum, and from there, to the new museums in the départements. The main focus will be on the proximity of these scientific collections to the art collections at the time when the notion of patrimony came into being. Emphasis will also be put on the meaning and purposes of the distribution of material between the various Parisian institutions, between the Muséum and the cabinets in the départements as well as in the various galleries within the Muséum itself.