An Interrupted Story: French Translations from "Philosophical Transactions" in the Seventeenth and...

An Interrupted Story: French Translations from "Philosophical Transactions" in theSeventeenth and Eighteenth CenturiesAuthor(s): Anthony TurnerSource: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Dec. 20, 2008), pp.341-354Published by: The Royal SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20462690 .

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NOTES & RECORDS Notes Rec. R. Soc. (2008) 62, 341-354

-OF THE ROYAL doi: 10. 1098/rsnr.2008.0006 SOCIETY Published online 14 October 2008

AN INTERRUPTED STORY: FRENCH TRANSLATIONS FROM PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

by

ANTHONY TURNER*

24 rue du Buisson Richard, 78600 Le Mesnil-le-Roi, France

Although consistently recognized as desirable by both the Royal Society and the Academie des Sciences, translations of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society were only infrequently undertaken officially. More successful were some private attempts, which by the end of the eighteenth century had produced a virtually complete translation, albeit only of Lowthorp's abridgements.

Keywords: Philosophical Transactions; translation; Academie des Sciences

Replying to a proposal made in July 16681 by Jean Gallois (1632-1707), the acting secretary of the Academie Royale des Sciences, for mutual cooperation and correspondence, Henry Oldenburg (ca. 1619-77),2 his permanent equivalent in London, set out something of his credo. Their respective academies, 'founded by two Great Kings for the advancement of useful sciences', he saw as leaven that would bring all the rest of the civilized world to a ferment of imitative activity.

I am of your opinion, that it would be in the interest of the sciences, that we keep a good correspondence together, and that we use the pen principally to arouse thinking people to unite their forces, and to work in such a way that mutually they help each other in the business of making experiments and discoveries concerning nature and the arts.3

Oldenburg, like Mersenne and Boulliau before him, saw himself as an active force in the 'Republic of Letters', spreading knowledge, stimulating research and provoking learned confrontation.4 Unlike Mersenne and Boulliau, Gallois and Oldenburg had institutional bases from which to perform this work, although neither of their institutions had, as yet, a firm publishing programme.

However, material for publication was exactly what Gallois was seeking from Oldenburg. He explained that hitherto he had benefited from the letters that Oldenburg exchanged with Denis de Sallo (1626-69), but that the latter could no longer cope with the task. Gallois would therefore aid him. Denis de Sallo was the founder and first editor of the Journal des Svavans:

Gallois was a member of his editorial team.5 On 11 April 1668 he was co-opted into the

*[email protected]

One contribution of 3 to a Special Feature on 'Franco-British interactions in science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'.

341 This journal is (C 2008 The Royal Society



342 A. Turner

Academie Royale des Sciences not for his learning but specifically to execute the duties of the permanent secretary, J. B. Duhamel (1623-1706), who had left Paris in the train of Colbert de Croissy, first for the peace negotiations at Aix-la-Chapelle, and then for London, where he remained until the summer of 1669.6 Being (acting) secretary of the Academie was for

Gallois only a factor to confirm to Oldenburg that he should correspond with him: 'Aussy bien ayant le meme employ' ('the more so since I have the same employment').

What was of interest to the journalist Gallois was the journalistic activity of Oldenburg. On 6 March 1665 he had launched Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (hereafter Philosophical Transactions),7 in which short papers and letters on philosophical subjects were published and books reviewed. It was reported immediately in the Journal des Sbavans for 30 March 1665. In his notice de Sallo implied that the new journal was modelled on his

own;8 he also announced that an English translator had at last been found for the Journal des Scavans, thanks to whom it would in future be enriched by news of the finest things done in

England.9 The issue in which de Sallo reported this, however, was also the last that he would edit. His journal had aroused opposition. It was seen as pretentiously setting itself up as arbiter of learned life, and the connections of de Sallo with the Paris Parlement, combined with his Jansenist and Gallican attitudes, provoked hostility from the Jesuits. The opposition crystallized around the papal nuncio, who obtained prohibition of the Journal from the

crown.10 Nevertheless it was clear that such a publication, if tightly controlled by the government, could be valuable. With the controlling support of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's all-powerful minister, it therefore recommenced publication on 4 January 1666 with Gallois as its editor. On 24 January, Henry Justel (1620-93), the most reliable of Oldenburg's correspondents in Paris, wrote requesting Oldenburg to send him Philosophical Transactions

each month; 'we shall have them explained and translated as well as we can'. I

The announcement that de Sallo had made of Philosophical Transactions was indexed under the title 'Du Journal d'Angleterre' and it was by this name that the English publication was subsequently identified. Gallois and his successors had an obvious need of it and between 1665 and 1701 at least 98 extracts from Philosophical Transactions were published in the

Journal des Scavans.12 However, these seem only to have been a selection of what was

available. Preserved today in the Academie des Sciences is a volume entitled 'Journal d'Angleterre 26 mars 1668-2 mars 1670'.13 The volume consists of 34 gatherings of various sizes, written in at least five different hands, of translations from Philosophical Transactions. Each gathering or 'cahier' is headed 'Journal d'Angleterre' followed by the date in old and new style, evidence that they were produced separately and bound together only later, perhaps at the end of the century or early in the next. Very similar are two volumes, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, entitled 'Nouvelles scientifiques de l'Angleterre', that contain translations of Philosophical Transactions from February 1668 to September 1671. Of this collection of rather hastily written translations, the first has been neatly recopied and is inscribed on the back 'A. M. Carcavy'.14 Both these volumes and the Academie des Sciences volume include an identical disclaimer by the translator to the effect that the translations were made rapidly and that the work was difficult because of the variegated subjects treated, the specialized vocabulary used, the coinages that English writers allowed themselves, and the short time available. The translator who thus complains requests members of the Academie des Sciences to be indulgent and make good themselves the shortcomings.'5

This remark, as Pierre Costabel has already pointed out, suggests a close connection between the translations and the Academie des Sciences, and references to readings from the 'Journal d'Angleterre' can indeed be found in the Proces-verbaux of the Academie.16



French translations from Philosophical Transactions 343

To argue further, as Costabel does, that these translations were prepared specifically for the Academie des Sciences seems, however, too restrictive.17 Extracts from Philosophical Transactions occur both in meetings of the Academie and in the pages of the Journal des

Scavans, where they are specifically referred to as taken from the 'Journal d'Angleterre'. Gallois, in 1668-69, was both acting secretary of the Academie and editor of the Journal des

SCavans. It is a reasonable conclusion that he orchestrated the translations so that he could use them in both his employments. If the link with the Academie is reinforced by remarks by the translator that he has omitted to translate accounts of French books and reports on work done in Paris because these will already be familiar to members of the Academie,j8 a note at the end of the volume shows that the translations were nonetheless intended for a wider audience: 'Nous laissons diverses autres observations qui sont raportees en cet ouvrage la, en partie par faute de place et en partie aussi parce qu'il y en a plusieurs qui ne sont pas propres a etre exposes a la veiie de toutes sortes de lecteurs' ('We leave several other observations reported in that work there, partly for want of space and partly also because there are many that are not proper to be displayed to every kind of reader).'19 On another occasion, no translation of the report of Huygens's observations of Saturn on 17 August 1668 is given because a long account had already appeared in the Journal des Scavans.20

What seems to have been the earliest attempt to translate Philosophical Transactions, at least in part, was then effected neither by the Royal Society nor by its secretary (who was also owner of Philosophical Transactions) but by undertakers in France for the joint interest of the Academie des Sciences and the Journal des SCavans. This was probably because rather few members of the Academie knew English (Mariotte was a conspicuous exception), a fact that led Jean Denis to propose to Oldenburg that if he would prepare and send him a French translation of Philosophical Transactions he, Denis, would 'willingly have it printed at my expense both for your own reputation and for the satisfaction of a multitude of the curious who would be delighted to be able to read and understand them by themselves'. 21 It was exactly for this reason that in Caen, where an 'academie de physique' was in the process of being formed, translations of some of the early numbers of Philosophical Transactions from 1665 and 1666 were produced by Jacques Savary, Sieur de Courtsigny, although these had no influence outside the immediate circle for which they were produced.22 The need for a French version was felt the more strongly because there was as yet no Latin version to make Philosophical Transactions internationally available.23 Of this, however, Oldenburg was mindful and it was exactly at this period that a Latin translation did begin.

Initially Oldenburg intended to prepare such a translation himself. In December 1667 he was exploring with the Royal Society's printer, John Martyn, the possibility of producing a pocket-sized volume (presumably a duodecimo) containing Latin translations of selected papers from Philosophical Transactions. Nothing coming of the proposal at the end of the

month, he told Wallis that he intended 'to put ye Transactions in Latin between this and

Whitsontide',24 a forecast that was overly optimistic because in November 1670 he was still

translating,25 only to stop in December when he heard that a Latin translation was being printed in Hamburg. This began publication with Philosophical Transactions for 1669. It was prepared by John Sterpin, a Scot born in France, educated in England and living in

Denmark, but was so faulty that in April Oldenburg forbade Sterpin to continue with it.26 However, the need for a Latin edition continued to be felt in France and throughout Europe. 27 Philip Jacob Sachs proposed to Oldenburg to include extracts from Philosophical Transactions in the Miscellanea curiosa,28 and in the winter of 1671/72 the first volume of



344 A. Turner

a projected series of translations, commissioned from Christoph Sand by the Amsterdam booksellers and publishers Henry and Theodore Boom, was published.29

Sand went to considerable trouble over his translation, sending lists of queries to Oldenburg, only to be sharply criticized in a review of the four published volumes in Philosophical Transactions itself.30 Thereafter the series of translations ceased. In effecting it the earlier French translations used in the Journal des Sfavans had played a part because, to save himself some labour, Sand reused the translations of those papers that had appeared in the Latin version of the Journal.31 The Journal indeed was now, once again, the only printed source in France for news of English research into natural philosophy. This meant that little enough was known: during the last four years of his editorship, Gallois managed to issue only 13 numbers of the Journal. Under his successor (until 1684), the Abbe de la Rocque, publication was more regular, as it was also under Cousin (until 1701), but articles derived from Philosophical Transactions made up only a small part of it.

Translated or not, Philosophical Transactions remained a model. On 19 December 1691, Bignon, the moderator of the Academie, announced to its members that their protector, Pontchartrain, desired that they would 'publish each month a memoir of what they had done'. The result of this instruction was the Memoires de mathematiques et de physique, tirez des registres de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, which, prepared by Gallois, who 'refined the style',32 appeared in 1692 and 1693 and then ceased publication.33 Martin Lister thought that this monthly publication had been 'endeavoured ... after the manner of ours in London'. 34 He also noted that the 'Wars had made them altogether Strangers to what has been doing in England'. Discoursing with him, the Marquis de l'Hopital 'expressed a great desire to have the whole Sett of the Philosophic Transactions brought over'.35

L'Hopital explained to Lister that the Academie des Sciences had only a limited correspondence network, but it seems clear that recognition was growing that knowledge of what was happening elsewhere was necessary. With the reform of the Academie in 1699, the new regulations stipulated:

l'academie aura soin d'entretenir commerce avec les divers savants, soit de Paris et des provinces du royaume, soit meme des pays etrangers. ... L'Academie chargera quelqu'un des academiciens de lire les ouvrages importantes ... qui par6itrent, soit en France, soit ailleurs; et ... en fera son rapport a la Compagnie.36

Fortuitously a contact of exactly the kind envisaged by these instructions had already taken place. In 1698 Etienne Francois Geoffroy (1672-1731) had accompanied Camille, Comte de Tallard, on his embassy to London. There, through the agency of Martin Lister, whom he had met in Paris earlier in the year, and thanks to a letter of introduction from Tournefort to Sir Hans Sloane, he was rapidly integrated into the learned society of London and on 6 July 1698 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.37 On his return to Paris he was appointed eleve to Wilhelm Homberg (1652-1715), an old acquaintance of his father, who maintained a scientific salon frequented by several members of the Academie.38 Later in the same year Geoffroy was reading abridged, translated, extracts from Philosophical Transactions at meetings of the Academie.39 Thereafter, as a result of his correspondence with Sloane he was able to keep the Academie informed of news from London, and many volumes of Philosophical Transactions were present in his private library-they were not available in the Academie.40

Thanks to Geoffroy some knowledge of Philosophical Transactions was therefore available to members of the Academie des Sciences. There was, however, little enough available to that wider public for scientific discourses and entertainment that developed during this period as




physics, chemistry, natural history and even mathematics became integrated in the culture of 'l'honnete homme'.41 Although Latin would long remain the language of learning (which

meant that the failure of the Latin translations of Philosophical Transactions was particularly regrettable, although it is worth noting that what did exist was reprinted in 1706), it was increasingly rivalled by the vernaculars. French, which had become the diplomatic language

of Europe after the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714, was a stronger rival than English, and few even

of French academicians-let alone the cultural nation at large-were inclined to learn the insular tongue. English work in the sciences was, however, strong and, as a result, from the

early decades of the eighteenth century onwards, translations from English multiplied in a growing commercial market.42 It was probably inevitable that in time translations of Philosophical Transactions would recommence, but it should be emphasized that when they did it was once again on a private initiative.

In late 1736 or early 1737 Francois de Bremond (1713-42), a rising man of letters and

learning, who had already published a translation of Stephen Hales's work on the desalination of sea water,43 proposed, on the model of Lowthorp and Motte' s Abridgements ..., to produce a French equivalent.44 'Son premier projet avoit ete de ne donner en entier que les Memoires qui lui en auroient paru dignes, & de se borner pour les autres 'a des Extraits accompagnes de ses propres Reflexions' ('His first idea was to translate completely only such memoires as seemed

worthwhile, & to limit the rest to abstracts accompanied by his own reflections'). Such a method was, however, hardly satisfactory. A full translation was needed if judgement was not to be skewed, and the more so because, according to Pierre Demours,45 English was less well known than French. 'Une traduction fran,aise des Transactions Philosophiques pourrait donc convenir 'a un plus grand nombre qu'il est de personnes que l'Original meme, & c'est une raison de plus pour la faire pure & simple, & aussi fidele qu'il est possible' ('A French translation of Philosophical Transactions could thus be suitable for more people even than the original, which is a further reason for doing it as completely and faithfully as possible'). The project came to the attention of Henry Francois d'Aguesseau (1668-1751), Chancellor of France and an Honoraire of the Academie des Sciences (he was President in 1729 and again in 1739). He

convoked members of the Academie des Sciences and of the Belles Lettres 'to discuss how to

make this translation more useful and agreeable to the Public and to the Company'. A majority agreed that 'the full and faithful translation of the text', without prejudice to such notes as de Bremond might wish to add, would be preferable to an abridged text.46 The project now became official. De Bremond retranslated the years 1735 and 1736 in full, and on 1 September 1737 Bignon could inform the Royal Society that 'at last we have engaged a young man called M. de Bremond to turn [your Philosophical Transactions] into French' .47

De Bremond, before his early death, produced four volumes containing translations of Philosophical Transactions for 1731 to 1736.48 He added to these extensive notes and

commentaries, 'which by their length and the knowledge they deployed could pass muster as

Memoirs worthy of being included in this collection, or in that of the Academie des

Sciences'. 49Even before then he had prepared a general, analytical, index to Philosophical Transactions from their beginning up to 1735, also with notes and commentaries.50 It was

probably in recognition of this work that on 16 March 1739 de Bremond was elected adjoint botaniste in the Academie des Sciences, and on 26 February 1740 a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the proposal certificate of 27 November 1740, signed by Sloane, Martin Folkes, John Martin, Cromwell Mortimer and J. T. Desaguliers, his translations and their

accompanying commentaries are mentioned and he is described as 'a person every way qualified and likely to become a usefull member and correspondent'.



346 A. Turner

In parallel with translating Philosophical Transactions, de Bremond prepared other translations, notably of Murdoch's loxodromic tables (1742) and Hauksbee's Physico

mechanical Experiments.51 At his death he left a further volume of translations from Philosophical Transactions in an advanced state. Completion of it, and continuation of the work, was imposed by d'Aguesseau, 'qui regardoit la Traduction des Transactions philosophiques comme un objet digne de l'attention de gouvernement' ('who considered the translation of Philosophical Transactions as something worth governmental attention' ),52 on Pierre Demours (1702-95) for what concerned physics, and on Gua de Malves (1713-88) for the mathematics. After having translated most of the mathematical parts of 1737 and 1738, however, the latter withdrew. Demours, who was already an experienced translator, having published versions of Burdon' s Pocket Farrier and, more relevantly, the proceedings of the Medical Society of Edinburgh,53 now obtained from de Bremond's inheritors the papers concerning his translation of Philosophical Transactions. From these he was able to add several notes on astronomy, while what remained untranslated from 1737-38 was effected by Jurain, later a professor of mathematics at Reims (1759). Translations put out to other, unnamed, translators were, however, unhelpful and Demours was much delayed by the need to correct them.54

Demours extended de Bremond's translations from 1737 to 1741, although the volumes were not published until 1759-61, perhaps a reflection of the several other translations that he undertook during this period and that he was also compiling an index for volumes 5-9 of the Memoires of the Academie.5s Be this as it may, at this point the first formal attempt by the Academie des Sciences to translate Philosophical Transactions came to an end. Curiously it did so exactly at the moment when the two societies had at last begun to exchange their publications. On 14 July 1749 Cromwell Mortimer had offered an exchange of Philosophical Transactions against the Histoire et Memoires of the Academie des Sciences. Buffon sent a set of the latter in mid 1750; the Royal Society was slower, and only three years later was a set of Philosophical Transactions received by the Academie.56 Perhaps the availability of this set made their translation seem less necessary; certainly the task was becoming increasingly burdensome as the size and regularity of Philosophical Transactions increased. Whatever the case, for more than a decade after 1741 no translations of Philosophical Transactions were available in France.57

Nor, of course, were they for most other European journals treating of medicine and the natural sciences, journals moreover to which access was not easy, particularly in the provinces. It was to ameliorate this situation that in the early 1750s Jean Berryat (1718-54), MD Montpellier, medecin ordinaire du Roi practising at Auxerre, where he was a member of the Societe des sciences et belles lettres, conceived the publication of a collection of translations (in full or abridged) of the transactions of the leading learned societies of Europe and, because they were equally difficult to find in the regions, of abridgements of the Histoire et Memoires of the Academie des Sciences. Berryat found support from cultivated men and printer-publishers in Auxerre and Dijon. Despite his unexpected, tragic, death in 1754,58 the first two volumes of abridgements from the Memoires of the Academie des Sciences were published in 1754 and the first volumes of translations from the transactions of foreign academies in 1755.59 Explicitly presented by Berryat's successor as editor, Philibert Guenaud de Monbeillard (1720-85), as a contribution to both the sciences and the recent history of the sciences,60 the second volume of the collection contained an abridged translation of Philosophical Transactions from 1665 to 1678 and of the Philosophical Collections with which Robert Hooke supplemented its non-appearance from 1678 to 1683.61




The translations for the volume were undertaken by several hands. First, Pierre Henry Larcher (1726-1812) was born in Dijon, and studied there, at Pont 'a Mousson with the Jesuits and in Paris, before spending two years in London to improve his English. Thereafter he published several translations from Greek and English, among them Pope's Discourse on Pastoral Poetry, his Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (1741),62 and the Histories of Herodotus (1786). In the late 1760s Larcher was involved in a violent controversy with Voltaire over the Philosophie de l'Histoire (1767) by the latter's uncle Bazin. In 1778 he was elected to the Academie des Inscriptions. Second, Antoine Roux (1726-76) was a medical journalist and translator noted in particular for his Annales typographiques, ou notions du progres des connoissances humaines (1756-62). Third, Buffon (1707-88) was a close friend of Guenaud' s. Fourth, Daubenton was the elder brother of the naturalist Jean Marie Daubenton (1716-1800), who would collaborate with Guenaud on the third volume of the series. All four, apart from their acquaintance with Guenaud, had connections with the Dijon region, and the entire project of the Collection academique may be seen not only as the response of private, broadly cultivated, literary men concerned for the advancement of learning but also as the response of private, broadly cultivated, provincial literary men, to the difficulty of

obtaining the publications of the learned societies of Europe.63 Projected in under 40 volumes, 29 volumes of the Collection academique appeared,

16 of these being the abridgements of the Memoires of the Academie des Sciences. Philosophical Transactions was still not entirely available, even in abridgement, to the French reader when the series came to an end in 1779. However, the need still seemed present. In the 1780s, therefore, a new attempt was made at a translated abridgement. It was once again a private initiative. Jacques Gibelin (1744-1828) undertook the work in the mid 1780s. He was a physician who, born in Aix-en-Provence, spent several years in Paris and in England before returning to his native city. There he became town librarian and perpetual secretary of the Societe Academique d'Aix. After translating works by Priestley, Adam Ferguson and Kirwan, he undertook Abridgements of the Philosophical Transactions as these had been effected by Lowthorp, Jones, Evans and Martin.64 However, Gibelin was not one to translate literally.65 The work that he undertook was arranged chronologically by subject, and both he and the collaborators that he found it necessary to involve felt free to rearrange the materials 'by method', to be selective, and to update. This was especially true in Gibelin's volume on botany, where he added the new Linnaean nomenclature. His collaborator for chemistry, Philippe Pinel, however, would not apply the new terminology of Lavoisier and Guyton.

Gibelin's extensive summary made available the contents of Philosophical Transactions from their origins up to ca. 1785. It was arranged as shown in table 1. The collaborators were all distinguished scholars. Jean Louis Antoine Reynier (1762-1824) was a Swiss naturalist established at Garchy in the Nievre who, at the instance of his younger brother, the general J. L. E. Reynier, worked in Egypt during the French occupation and published various works on

physics, Egyptology, numismatics and natural history. Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) was a

physician notable for his work on mental illness and the classification of maladies. E. F. M.

Bosquillon (1744-1816) also practised medicine, a pursuit that he combined with a high competence in Greek, being Professor of Greek Language and Philosophy at the College de France. He was also a notable bibliophile whose library would eventually attain some 30 000

volumes. He was the author of several scientific translations from Greek and from English. A. L. Millin de Grandmaison (1759-1818) began his literary career with translations from German and from English, became a fervent follower of Linnaeus, and was a founding



348 A. Turner

Table 1. Abrege des Transactions Philosophiques de la Societe Royale de Londres, Ouvrage traduit de l'Anglois, et redige par M. Gibelin..., 14 vols, 80 (Buisson, Paris, 1787-91).

I partie: Histoire naturelle (2 tom.), 1787 J. Gibelin 2e et 3e partie: Botanique, agriculture, le jardinage, et 1'economie rurale, J. Gibelin

(2 tom.), 1790 4' partie: Physique exp6rimentale (2 tom.), 1790 J. L. A. Reynier 5e partie: Chimie, 1791 Ph. Pinel 6e partie: Anatomie et physique animale, 1790 Ph. Pinel

7' partie: M6decine et Chirurgie, 1791 Ph. Pinel

8' partie: Matiere m6dicale et pharmacie tome 1, 1789 Wilmet & E. F. M. Bosquillon

9' partie: Matiere m6dicale et pharmacie tome 2, 1791 E. F. M. Bosquillon & Ph. Pinel

b0e partie: M6langes, observations, voyages, 1790 A. L. Millin de Grandmaison lIe et 12e partie: Antiquit6s [et] beaux-arts, inventions et machines, 1789-90 A. L. Millin de Grandmaison

member of the Linnaean Society of Paris, of which he became the perpetual secretary. While

imprisoned during the Revolution he wrote Ele'ments d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1795 he was

appointed curator of antiquities and medals in the Bibliotheque Nationale and thereafter devoted himself to the archaeological studies for which he is best remembered.

None of these men, it will be noticed, were connected with the Academie des Sciences at the time when they were working on translating Philosophical Transactions.66 Gibelin's initiative was a private one. At once limited in aim (translating only abridgements) but universal in scope (covering all subjects), with a 'methodical treatment' that was adjusted to the most recent developments in knowledge, Gibelin's volumes offered the comprehensive view of the activities of the Royal Society as reflected in Philosophical Transactions that had

long been desired, but only briefly attempted officially, during the previous 130 years.

Notes

1 All dates are given in new style. Gallois to Oldenburg 1 July 1668, in The correspondence of

Henry Oldenburg (ed. A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall) (University of Wisconsin Press,

Madison, 1965-77; hereafter cited as Corr. Old.), vol. 4, p. 487, letter 899. For Oldenburg see

Marie Boas Hall, Henry Oldenburg, shaping the Royal Society (Oxford University Press, 2002). The best modern account of Gallois is that by Jean-Pierre Vittu in Dictionnaire des journalistes 1600-1789 (eds Anne-Marie Chouillet and Fran?ois Moureau), Suppl?ment IV (Centre d'?tude des sensibilit?s, Grenoble, 1985).

2 For Oldenburg's date of birth see A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, 'Some hitherto unknown

facts about the private career of Henry Oldenburg', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 18, 94-103 (1963), at

pp. 94-95.

3 Oldenburg to Gallois 18 July 1668, in Corr. Old., vol. 4, p. 556, letter 925. 4 For the idea of the 'republic of letters' see M. Fumaroli, 'Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Prince

de la R?publique des lettres', in Peiresc-Gassendi: l'humanisme triomphant dans la Provence

baroque, pp. 23-53 (Fondation Peiresc, Brussels, 1992). For Oldenburg as communicator see

Marie Boas Hall, 'Oldenburg and the art of scientific communication', Br. J. Hist. Sei. 2, 277-290

(1965). For Mersenne see Mme Paul Tannery, Cornelis de Waard, Bernard Rochot and Armand

Beaulieu (eds), Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne, religieux minime (P.U.F., Paris,

1932-88). For Boulliau see Robert A. Hatch, The collection Boulliau (BN, FF. 1301913059), an

inventory (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1982). 5 Letters from de Sallo are mentioned several times by Oldenburg, but none seem to have survived.

The Journal des S?avans began publication on 5 January 1665. See Eug?ne Hatin, Bibliographie

historique et critique de la presse p?riodique fran?aise (re-edition Anthropos, Paris, 1965),




pp. 28-33, at p. 29. On 24 November 1664 Oldenburg had reported to Boyle the plan of the future

Journal and noted that 'I am sollicited to contribute what I can concerning England ... being

promised to be paid in the like coyne from France of what passeth and in Italy etc. (Corr. Old.,

vol. 2, p. 320). 6 Proc?s-verbaux de l'Acad?mie Royale des Sciences, vol. 3, f. lr. Duhamel left Paris in the train of

Colbert de Croissy on 28 March 1668, two weeks before Gallois's appointment to the Acad?mie des Sciences. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, marking the end of the War of Devolution, was

signed on 2 May. Thereafter Colbert, and Duhamel with him, travelled to London, arriving in

August. Duhamel left England in June of the following year. 7 The Record of the Royal Society, 4th edn (London, The Royal Society, 1940), p. 36; Corr. Old.,

vol. 2, p. xxv; Hall, op. cit. (note 1). 8 In his ?loge of Gallois (1707), Fontenelle also included Philosophical Transactions among the

'numerous posterity' of the Journal des S?avans. See ?loges des academicians de l'Acad?mie

Royale des Sciences morts depuis l'an 1699, new edn (Paris, 1761), vol. 1, pp. 168-177, at p. 169.

That it was indeed Oldenburg's model is likely, given the proximity of their dates of commencement, 5 January and 6 March 1665, the similarity of their small 4? format and the

similarity of their contents (articles, letters and book reviews). The only major differences were

that the Journal des S?avans covered all literary activity and appeared weekly, whereas

Philosophical Transactions, in theory, only that which related to natural philosophy, and once a

month. It should be noted, however, that publication of the Journal des S?avans during the years

of Gallois's editorship (1665-74) was highly irregular, with only 88 issues appearing. I follow here the figure given by Vittu, op. cit. (note 1), rather than the 72 issues counted by Hatin, op. cit.

(note 5), p. 313. See also the remarks by Harcourt Brown, Scientific organizations in seventeenth

century France (1620-1680), pp. 199-202 (Russell & Russell, New York, 1967 (reprint of the first edition of 1934)).

9 Journal des S?avans, 30 March 1665, p. 156. '... on a enfin trouu? vn interprete Anglois, par le

moyen duquel on pourra ? l'auenir l'enrichir de tout ce qui se fera de beau en Angleterre' ('We

have at last found a translator of English, by whose means we shall be enriched in the future by all

the fine things done in England'). 10 Hatin, op. cit. (note 5), p. 29.

11 Corr. Old., vol. 3, p. 11.

12 Isabelle Pantin, 'Langues', in La science classique XVIe-XVIIIe si?cle. Dictionnaire critique (ed.

Michel Blay and Robert Halleux), pp. 75-83 (Flammarion, Paris, 1998), at p. 80. Counting the

references given by Fran?ois de Br?mond to abstracts in the Journal des S?avans of articles in

Philosophical Transactions in his Table des m?moires imprim?s dans les Transactions

Philosophiques de la Soci?t? Royale de Londres depuis 1665 jusques en 1735 (Paris, 1739), however, results in a total of 135 extracts. For the special circumstances in which Oldenburg

reprinted a (Latin) paper by Huygens from the Journal des S?avans in Philosophical Transactions with English and Latin introductions of his own, see Hall, op. cit. (note 1),

pp. 136-137. Later, in the issue for 25 March 1675, Oldenburg would publish, on Huygens's

instructions, a translation into English of the article in the Journal des S?avans of 25 February 1675 describing the principle of the latter's new balance-spring for watches.

13 Archives de l'Acad?mie des Sciences, 1 J 19. The volume was purchased in the Paris antiquarian book trade in 1967. It has been discussed by Pierre Costabel, 'Le registre acad?mique "Journaux

d'Angleterre" et Mariotte', in Mariotte, savant et philosophe (fl684), analyse d'une renomm?e

(Vrin, Paris, 1986), at pp. 321-325.

14 'For Mr Carcavy'; that is to say, the copy was intended for Pierre Carcavy (ca. 1603-84), the

royal librarian and academician (geometry) from 1666. Like Gallois, whom he certainly knew,

Carcavy was a dependent of Colbert. For his career see David J. Sturdy, Science and social

status: the members of the Acad?mie des Sciences, 1666-1750 (Boydell Press, Woodbridge,

Suffolk, 1995), at pp. 95-98.



350 A. Turner

15 'Journal d'Angleterre', 26 novembre 1668, f. 68v. Biblioth?que Nationale de France (BnF):

naf ms 21740-41, i, f. 201. Brown, op. cit. (note 8), p. 204, briefly describes the BnF volumes

and suggests that they were the work of Hues O'Neil, Sieur de Beaulieu, translator from

English attached to the Biblioth?que du Roi, who appears in the royal building accounts from

1666 to 1670. 16 Costabel, op. cit. (note 13), p. 322, gives an example from the Proc?s-verbaux for 22 July 1668:

'Apr?s cela on a lu dans le Journal d'Angleterre les reflexions sur la dispute qui est entre le P.

Riccioli et M. Angeli touchant le mouvement de la terre' ('after that the reflections in the English Journal on the dispute between Father Riccioli and M. Angeli about the movement of the Earth

were read'). This subject is treated in the cahier for 25 June 1668.

17 In this suggestion he was perhaps following Pierre Demours in the preface to the first volume of

his translation of Philosophical Transactions: Transactions philosophiques de la Soci?t? Royale de Londres .... Traduits par M. Demours ... (Paris, 1759), p. xliii, who states categorically that

'Des les premi?res ann?es de son Etablissement, l'Acad?mie Royale des Sciences faisoit faire des

Extraits des principaux M?moires des Transactions Philosophiques ... & ces Extraits lus dans ses

Assembl?es ?toient ensuite d?pos?s dans la Biblioth?que du Roi, o? se tenoit alors les S?ances de l'Acad?mie.' This affirmation, however, for the reasons given below, must be seen as a (slightly

vainglorious) simplification of the facts made with insufficiently informed hindsight. 18 Thus the notice of Perrault's anatomy of a chameleon, a beaver and a dromedary is omitted

'parcequ'il seroit inutile ? L'acad?mie royale, qui s?ait mieux ce qu'elle fait, et escrit, que qui que ce soit' ('because it would not be useful to the Acad?mie Royale which knows better what it does,

and writes, than anybody else'). Also omitted, for similar reasons, is Mariotte's reply to Pecquet, 3 June 1670 (f. 235r).

19 Fol. 335v.

20 Fol. 106v. Costabel, op. cit. (note 13), in his study of the Acad?mie des Sciences volume,

suggested that the translations were established by J. B. Duhamel after his encounter with

Oldenburg in London. Unfortunately for this hypothesis, the dates of the volume do not fit. The

first translation is dated 26 March 1668, which is two days before Duhamel left Paris for Aix

la-Chapelle and so several months before he met Oldenburg. In addition, because the volume is

simply a collection of individual cahiers there is no reason to assume either that it was not one

of a series or that it was the first of such a series. Because, under the title 'Journal d'Angleterre', extracts from Philosophical Transactions were being published in the Journal des S?avans from

1666 onwards, it seems likely that the Acad?mie volume is one survivor from a group of

volumes containing translations made for the use of both the Acad?mie and the editors of the

Journal. That the volumes in the BnF, op. cit. (note 15), begin in February 1668 tends to

confirm this argument. 21 For Mariotte's knowledge of English see Costabel, op. cit. (note 13). For a few others see Brown,

op. cit. (note 8), p. 203. Denis to Oldenburg 22 June 1668: Corr. Old., vol. 4, p. 473, letter 892.

For Denis's M?moires et Conf?rences sur les Arts et les Sciences... (1672), which reflect

influence from Philosophical Transactions, see Brown (ibid.), pp. 203-204.

22 Brown, op. cit. (note 8), p. 202; David S. Lux, Patronage and royal science in seventeenth

century France: the Acad?mie de Physique in Caen (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1989), at pp. 101-102.

23 Demours, in his Pr?face, states that in 1668, when only 31 issues of Philosophical Transactions

had appeared, a member of the Montmor Academy offered to translate them but desisted on

learning that Lewis du Moulin in London was going to translate them into Latin. Demours cites

for this Thomas Birch, The history of the Royal Society (London, 1756-57), vol. 2, p. 241. This,

however, is a total confusion because what was in question was a translation of Thomas Sprat's

History of the Royal Society of 1667, which Du Moulin proposed to translate not into Latin but

into French.




24 Oldenburg to Boyle 3 December 1667, Corr. Old., vol. 4, p. 6; to Wallis 24 December 1667,

Corr. Old., vol. 4, p. 83.

25 Corr. Old., vol. 7, p. 264.

26 Acta Philosophica Regia, anni 1669. Aliquam exhibentia notitam praesentium incoeptorum, studiorum et laborum eorum, qui eruditi salutantur, in plerisque praecipuis mundi partibus. Ab

H. Oldenburgio ... Anglice conscripta, in Latinum versa a J. Sterpino, Hamburg (1671). Corr.

Old., vol. 7, pp. 468^69, 547 and 573-574.

27 '[W]e ... have a great longing for the Latin edition of your Philosophical Transactions, in order

that everyone may read them.' E. Bartholin to Oldenburg 11 January 1673, Corr. Old., vol. 9,

p. 403 (translation by the editors). 28 Corr. Old., vol. 7, p. 528.

29 Acta Philosophia Societatis Regiae in Anglia anni ... 1665, 1666, 1667, 1668 (Amsterdam,

1672), to accompany which a reprint of Stirpin's volume for 1669 was published in 1671. 30 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 106,141-144 (1674). For Sand's care see his letters to Oldenburg in volumes

10 and 11 of Corr. Old. 31 Le Journal des S?avans: hoc est Ephemerides eruditorum... /jam vero in linguam latinam versae

opera atq. studio M. F. Nitzschi... (heirs Sch?reri-G?tzianorum & J. Fritzschii, Leipzig,

1667-71). 32 'l'Abb? Gallois ... mit en ordre les M?moires qui parurent de cette Acad?mie en 1692 & 93, &

qui e?t le soin d'en ?purer le style' ('M. l'Abb? Gallois organized the Memoirs which appeared from the Academy in 1692 and 1693 and took the trouble to refine the style'). Fontenelle, op. cit.

(note 8), p. 175.

33 Anne-Sylvie Gu?noun, 'Les publications de l'Acad?mie des Sciences avant la r?forme de 1699',

in Histoire et m?moire de l'Acad?mie des Sciences: guide de recherches (ed. Eric Brian and

Christiane Demeulenaere-Douy?re), pp. 107-140 (Tec & Doc, Paris, 1998), at p. 111. According to Fontenelle it was 'la grande vari?t?' of Gallois's studies that 'interrompit quelquefois ce travail

qui avoit des tems prescrits, & le fit enfin cesser'; Fontenelle, op. cit. (note 8), p. 175. Martin

Lister, however (A journey to Paris in the year 1698 (London, 1699; with two further editions in

the same year), p. 97), following l'H?pital, attributed the failure to a lack of material because

there were so very few academicians. A contributing factor was that although the M?moires were

in French, being highly specialized they would have had only limited sales within France, and

virtually none outside it because they were not in Latin.

34 Lister, op. cit. (note 33), p. 80.

35 Ibid., p. 97. The wars referred to by Lister are those of the first Grand Alliance (1686-97), brought to an end by the peace of Ryswick. L'H?pital's 'great desire' was not fulfilled, despite his heavy hint to Lister.

36 'R?glement ordonn? par le Roi pour l'Acad?mie des Sciences, Versailles, 26 janvier 1699',

articles 27 and 28 in R?glement, usages et science dans la France de l'absolutisme ... (ed. Eric

Brian and Christiane Demeulenaere-Douy?re) (Tech & Doc, London, 2002), at p. xxvi.

37 This, according to Lister, op. cit. (note 33), p. 243, was at his suggestion; however, Geoffroy's official proposer was Sloane. See Michael Hunter, The Royal Society and its Fellows 1660-1700,

2nd edition (Monograph 4, British Society for the History of Science, Oxford, 1994), p. 228, no. 521. For Tournefort's letter to Sloane see Jean Jacquot, 'Sir Hans Sloane and French men of

science', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 10, 85-98 (1952-53), at p. 87.

38 Sturdy, op. cit. (note 14), p. 327, and see pp. 328-331 for a general account of Geoffroy's career.

39 BnF ms naf 5148. This is a detailed register of meetings of the Acad?mie des Sciences made by Claude II Bourdelin from 11 March 1699 to 20 December 1709.

40 Sturdy, op. cit. (note 14), p. 330.

41 For the origins of this cultural transformation see Fran?ois de Dainville, Les J?suites et

l'?ducation de la Soci?t? Fran?aise: la g?ographie des humanistes; la naissance de l'Humanisme

moderne (Beauchesne & fils, Paris, 1940), and for its development in the eighteenth century see



352 A. Turner

Geoffrey V. Sutton, Science for a polite society: gender, culture and the demonstration of

Enlightenment (Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1995). It is worth noting that the titles only of

articles published in Philosophical Transactions were translated during this period by Jean

Bernard in his Nouvelles de la R?publique de Lettres.

42 On the question of languages see Pantin, op. cit. (note 12); for translations see Isaac and

Sorgeloos (ibid.), p. 106.

43 Stephen Hales, Instructions pour les mariniers, contenant la mani?re de rendre l'eau de mer

potable: de conserver Veau douce, le biscuit, le bled; et de saler les animaux... (La Haye, 1740). The following year another translation, by Jean Bertrand, was published under the title

Exp?riences phisiques sur la maniere de rendre l'eau de mer potable, sur la maniere de

conserver l'eau douce, le biscuit et le bled, et sur la maniere de saler les animaux.

44 John Lowthorp and Henry Jones, The Philosophical transactions and collections, to the end of the

year 1720, abridged and disposed under general heads..., 4th edn (J. & J. Knapton, London,

1731-32). De Br?mond was also perhaps stimulated by news of the abridgement o? Philosophical Transactions from 1665 to 1735 for which Benjamin Baddam issued subscription proposals in the

Daily Advertiser on 12 October 1738. De Br?mond's translations are mentioned by Baddam:

John H. Appleby, 'Baddam, Benjamin', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online

version of 8 January 2008.

45 Pierre Demours, Transactions philosophiques de la Soci?t? royal de Londres, ann?e 1737

traduites par M. Demours (Piget, Paris, 1759), pp. xxxi and xxxiii.

46 [Dortous de Mairan], '?loge de M. De Br?mond', in Histoire de l'Acad?mie Royale des Sciences

pour l'ann?e 1743, pp. 187-194 (Paris, 174?), at p. 192.

47 Royal Society Letter Book copy, cited from Annie Chassagne, La Biblioth?que de l'Acad?mie

Royale des Sciences au XVIIIe si?cle, pp. 205-208 (?ditions du CTHS, Paris, 2007), at p. 205.

48 Transactions philosophiques de la Soci?t? royal de Londres, ann?e 1731 traduites par M. de

Br?mond (Piget, Paris, 1741). It is amusing to note that the page layout of these 4? volumes, like

those of his successor Pierre Demours, is made to resemble that of the M?moires de l'Acad?mie

Royale des Sciences.

49 De Mairan, op. cit. (note 46), p. 191.

50 Tables des m?moires dans les Transactions Philosophiques de la Soci?t? royale de Londres

depuis 1665 jusqu'en 1735 (Piget, Paris, 1739). 51 Patrick Murdoch, Nouvelles tables loxodromiques, ou application de la th?orie de la v?ritable

figure de la terre ? la construction des cartes marines (Durand, Paris, 1742); Francis Hauksbee,

Exp?riences physico-m?canique sur diff?rens sujets, et principalement sur la lumi?re et

l'?lectricit?, produites par le frottement des corps (Paris, 1754). 52 Chassagne, op. cit. (note 47), p. 208.

53 William Burdon, The Gentleman 's Pocket-Farrier shewing how to use your horse on a journey...

(S. Buckley, London, 1730). There were several editions before Demours's translation of 1737:

Essais et observations de la Soci?t? de M?decine d'Edimbourg (Paris, 1740). According to

himself, Demours undertook this translation rather than one of Philosophical Transactions (he claimed to have thought of translating these before de Br?mond), which he abandoned on being

incorrectly informed by a bookseller/publisher that a Jesuit translation was in preparation;

Demours, op. cit. (note 45), p. xlv.

54 Demours, op. cit. (note 45), p. xxxvii.

55 Table G?n?rale des mati?res contenues dans l'Histoire et les M?moires de l'Acad?mie des

Sciences, vols 5-9 (Paris, 1747-86), covering the years 1731-80. See Gu?noun, op. cit. (note 33),

p. 122.

56 Chassagne, op. cit. (note 47), p. 32. For the sake of completeness it is worth noting here the

curious case of J. A. Peyssonel's (1694-1759) work on corals. A m?moire by him on the subject

was, because of Reaumur's opposition to his recognition of the animal origin of coral, ignored by the Acad?mie des Sciences although Peyssonel had been the correspondent of Antoine de Jussieu




since 1731. Peyssonel therefore sent the paper (and subsequently others) to the Royal Society, which published an account of it by William Watson in English in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 49

(1756) and elected Peyssonel a Fellow on 5 February 1756. In the same year Peyssonel published a French version of Watson's account in a volume of self-serving miscellaneous papers. See J. A.

Peyssonel, Traduction d'un article des Transactions Philosophiques sur le Corail. Projet propos? ? l'Acad?mie de Marseilles pour l'?tablissement d'un prix pour une Dissertation sur l'Histoire

naturelle de la Mer, avec la r?ponse de l'Acad?mie, & une lettre sur cette r?ponse. Diverses

observations sur les Courans de la Mer en differens endroits (Londres [possibly a false imprint],

1756). See also Auguste Rampal, 'Une relation in?dite du voyage en Barbarie du m?decin

naturaliste marseillais Peyssonel', Bulletin de g?ographie historique et descriptive, vol. 2,

pp. 317-328 (Comit? des travaux, historiques et scientifiques, Paris, 1907); Jean Torlais, Un

esprit encyclop?dique en dehors de l'Encyclop?die'. R?aumur, d'apr?s des documents in?dits,

revised and enlarged edition (Paris, Blanchard, 1961), pp. 216-220. An earlier negative report by

Reaumur, in 1710 on Fran?ois Xavier Bon's account of his experiments to produce silk from

spiders, may have been among the reasons why Bon sent a version of his 'Examen de la soye des

araign?es', in M?moires pour l'histoire des sciences et beaux-arts, pp. 822-847 (Montpellier,

1710), to the Royal Society. It was published as 'A discourse upon the usefulness of the silk of

spiders' in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 27, 2-16 (1710). See Torlais (op. cit.), pp. 34-37; Sandy Whitsell and Stephen Turner, 'A short history of scientific interest in spider "silk" ', Rittenhouse

20, 106-121 (2006). 57 Nor were papers dating from before 1731. If translations of such were needed they would have to

be produced specially. It was perhaps during the 1750s when Marie-Genevi?ve-Charlotte, Mme

d'Arconville (1720-1805), was investigating the properties of camomile, making experiments for

her Trait? de putrefaction (1766) and translating (with extensive commentaries) Peter Shaw's

Le?ons de chimie (1759) and Monro's Trait? d'ost?ologie (1759) that she also translated 13

papers from the 1720 volume of Philosophical Transactions (eight concerning anatomy, four

medicine and one botany). These would be published in volume 3 of her anonymously issued

(like all her works) M?langes de litt?rature, de morale et de physique (Paris, 1775). I am grateful to Patrice Bret for drawing my attention to these translations.

58 Sent to Coulanges-la-Vineuse, a village 13 km from Auxerre, to investigate an epidemic disease

that had broken out there, Berryat himself caught a fatal attack of the malady. On 14 February

1750 he had been elected the corresponding member of Ferrein in the Acad?mie des Sciences.

59 Recueil de m?moires ou collection de pieces acad?miques concernant la m?decine, l'anatomie &

la chirurgie, la physique exp?rimentale, la botanique & l'histoire naturelle (1754-69). The first

two volumes were published in 1754; the third, issued in 1769, is the first to state explicitly that it

is of the 'partie fran?aise' and the tenth of the entire series, evidence that the foreign translations

and the abridgements of the M?moires of the Acad?mie des Sciences were seen as a single work.

Subsequently the title was changed to Collection acad?mique compos?e des m?moires, actes ou

journaux des plus c?l?bres academies & soci?t?s litt?raires, des extraits des meilleurs ouvrages

p?riodiques, des trait?s particuliers & des pieces fugitives les plus rares concernant l'histoire

naturelle et la botanique, la physique exp?rimentale et la chymie, la m?decine et l'anatomie;

partie fran?aise and consisted of 16 volumes. The foreign series had a similar title: Collection

acad?mique compos?e des m?moires, actes ou journaux des plus c?l?bres academies & soci?t?s

litt?raires ?trang?res, des extraits des meilleurs ouvrages p?riodiques, des trait?s particuliers &

des pieces fugitives les plus rares concernant l'histoire naturelle et la botanique, la physique

exp?rimentale et la chymie, la m?decine et l'anatomie; partie fran?aise, in 13 volumes. For the

lack of accessibility of the publications of learned societies and the context in periodical

publication of the Collection acad?mique see J. E. McClellan III, 'The scientific press in

transition: Rozier's journal and the scientific societies in the 1770s', Ann. Sei. 36, A25-AA9

(1979), at pp. 430-431.



354 A. Turner

60 'Cette collection ... renfermera les observations & les d?couvertes faites depuis le

renouvellement de la Philosophie par les plus habiles Physiciens d'Europe...' ('This collection

... includes the observations and discoveries made by the most talented physicists of Europe since the renewal of philosophy...'). Collection acad?mique (op. cit., note 59), vol. 1, p. xxxvi.

61 Collection acad?mique ...II. Contenant les Transactions philosophiques de la Soci?t? Royale de

Londres, depuis l'ann?e 1665 jusqu'en 1678 (Dijon and Auxerre, 1755). 62 Discours sur la po?sie pastorale (1751); L'Histoire de Martin Scriblerus (1755). 63 'En un mot la Collection acad?mique r?unira en moins de quarante volumes tous les faits relatifs

a son objet, les quels sont r?pandus dans plus de huit cent volumes originaux [and in many

languages] & dont la suite compl?te ne se trouve peut-?tre dans aucune Biblioth?que d'Europe'

('In brief the Collection acad?mique brings together in less than 40 volumes everything that

relates to its subject, originally dispersed in over 800 volumes [and in many languages] of which a

complete collection is perhaps not to be found in any library in Europe'). Collection acad?mique

(op. cit., note 59), vol. 1, p. xxxvii.

64 Philosophical Transactions and Collections, to the end of the year 1751, abridg'd and dispos'd under general heads..., edited by John Lowthorp (vols 1-3), H. Jones (vols 4 and 5), J. Eames

and J. Martyn (vols 6 and 7) and J. Martyn (vols 8-10) (Tho. Bennet, London, 1705-56).

65 For his literary work see Dora B. Weiner, 'Philippe Pinel, linguist, his work as translator',

Gesnerus 42, 499-509 (1985), at pp. 500-504, who concludes that 'Pinel took considerable

liberties, in his role as editor, broadening his function as translator into that of a cultural

ambassador for foreign ideas in France' (p. 504).

66 Pinel would be elected to the section of anatomy and zoology in April 1803. Millin, in 1806, would also become a member of the Institut, but in the Acad?mie des Inscriptions et Belles

Lettres.



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