Grégory Quenet
40
representation of earthquakes in scientific writings before Lisbon. As
Buffon declares in his Histoire et théorie de la terre, “rien n’est
comparable à la force de ces matières enflammées et resserrées dans le
sein de la terre, on a vu des villes entières englouties, des provinces
bouleversées, des montagnes renversées par leur effort”.
7 The force of
the image does not only come from its occurrence in classical literature. The Ancients remained an important source of information about
earthquakes in earlier periods. Thus when the Geographer Royal, Philippe Buache, compiled a dossier on earthquakes, he drew up a chronological table dating back more than a thousand years before the
Christian era, indicating “[ce] dont les historiens nous ont parlé en faisant le récit de la destruction des villes, du bouleversement des terres
et des éruptions des volcans”.
8 The same image appears in dictionaries
of the time, as in Furetière who wrote in 1690 that “les tremblements
de terre renversent les villes & les montagnes, changent le cours des
rivières, &c. L’Italie et les pays orientaux sont sujets aux
tremblements de terre”.
9
The minutes of the Académie royale des sciences provide us
with yet another means of perpetuating this image of earthquakes: the
information networks among academicians. In fact, up to 1744, the
academicians were particularly well informed about regions outside
France, even outside Europe. References to seismic activity in European countries were limited to citing Portugal in 1723 and Italy in
1703, 1704 (two references) and 1742. In contrast, Jesuit missionaries
reported the occurrence of earthquakes in China and in Santo Domingo to the Académie; this was the result of the learned society
reaching an agreement with Jesuits travelling in the Far East so that
the missionaries would provide them with scientific data, a collaboration which in 1692 would result in the Académie’s Observations Physiques et mathématiques envoyées des Indes et de la Chine.
10
Diplomats also contributed to data collection. For instance, the former
___________________________
7 Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Histoire et théorie de la terre (Paris:
Imprimerie royale, 1749), I, p. 110.
8 Paris, BnF, ms. n.a.fr. 20236 et 20237: Philippe Buache, Mémoire explicatif de la
carte des tremblements de terre dressée par Buache.
9 “Tremblement”, in Antoine Furetière, Dictionnaire universel, 3 vols (La Haye;
Rotterdam: 1690), III, (not paginated).
10 Roger Hahn, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666-1803 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971); French trans.,
(Paris:Yverdon, 1993), p. 24.
40
representation of earthquakes in scientific writings before Lisbon. As
Buffon declares in his Histoire et théorie de la terre, “rien n’est
comparable à la force de ces matières enflammées et resserrées dans le
sein de la terre, on a vu des villes entières englouties, des provinces
bouleversées, des montagnes renversées par leur effort”.
7 The force of
the image does not only come from its occurrence in classical literature. The Ancients remained an important source of information about
earthquakes in earlier periods. Thus when the Geographer Royal, Philippe Buache, compiled a dossier on earthquakes, he drew up a chronological table dating back more than a thousand years before the
Christian era, indicating “[ce] dont les historiens nous ont parlé en faisant le récit de la destruction des villes, du bouleversement des terres
et des éruptions des volcans”.
8 The same image appears in dictionaries
of the time, as in Furetière who wrote in 1690 that “les tremblements
de terre renversent les villes & les montagnes, changent le cours des
rivières, &c. L’Italie et les pays orientaux sont sujets aux
tremblements de terre”.
9
The minutes of the Académie royale des sciences provide us
with yet another means of perpetuating this image of earthquakes: the
information networks among academicians. In fact, up to 1744, the
academicians were particularly well informed about regions outside
France, even outside Europe. References to seismic activity in European countries were limited to citing Portugal in 1723 and Italy in
1703, 1704 (two references) and 1742. In contrast, Jesuit missionaries
reported the occurrence of earthquakes in China and in Santo Domingo to the Académie; this was the result of the learned society
reaching an agreement with Jesuits travelling in the Far East so that
the missionaries would provide them with scientific data, a collaboration which in 1692 would result in the Académie’s Observations Physiques et mathématiques envoyées des Indes et de la Chine.
10
Diplomats also contributed to data collection. For instance, the former
___________________________
7 Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Histoire et théorie de la terre (Paris:
Imprimerie royale, 1749), I, p. 110.
8 Paris, BnF, ms. n.a.fr. 20236 et 20237: Philippe Buache, Mémoire explicatif de la
carte des tremblements de terre dressée par Buache.
9 “Tremblement”, in Antoine Furetière, Dictionnaire universel, 3 vols (La Haye;
Rotterdam: 1690), III, (not paginated).
10 Roger Hahn, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666-1803 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971); French trans.,
(Paris:Yverdon, 1993), p. 24.