The courtiers' anatomists : animals and humans in Louis XIV's Paris

359 Pages·2015·5.32 MB·English

by  Du Verney

The Courtiers’ Anatomists

The Courtiers’ Anatomists
Animals and Humans
in Louis XIV’s Paris
ANITA GUERRINI
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Anita Guerrini is Horning Professor in the Humanities and professor of
history in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State
University. She is the author of Experimenting with Humans and Animals:
From Galen to Animal Rights and Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment:
The Life and Times of George Cheyne.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24766- 3 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24833- 2 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226248332.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Guerrini, Anita, 1953– author.
The courtiers’ anatomists : animals and humans in Louis XIV’s Paris /
Anita Guerrini.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-226-24766-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-24833-2
(e- book) 1. Zoology—Study and teaching—France—Paris—History.
2. Anatomy—Study and teaching—France—Paris—History. 3. Académie
des sciences (France)—History. 4. Histoire des animaux. 5. Perrault, Claude,
1613-1688. 6. Du Verney, M., 1648-1730. I. Title.
QL51.2.F8G84 2015
590.760944’361—dc23
2014039631
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To the memory of my parents,
Rita Lillian Greco Guerrini
1923– 1981
Armando Severino Guerrini
1922– 2014

CONTENTS
A Note on Names, Dates, and Other Matters / ix
Abbreviations Used in the Notes / xi
List of Illustrations / xiii
Introduction / 1
ONE / Anatomists and Courtiers / 17
TWO / The Anatomical Origins of the Paris Academy of Sciences / 50
THREE / The Animal Projects of the Paris Academy of Sciences / 92
FOUR / The Histoire des animaux / 128
FIVE / Perrault, Duverney, and Animal Mechanism / 165
SIX / The Courtiers’ Anatomist: Duverney at the Jardin du roi / 201
Conclusion / 239
Epilogue: The Afterlife of the Histoire des animaux / 247
Acknowledgments / 255
Notes / 259
Bibliography / 299
Index 327

A NOTE ON NAMES, DATES, AND OTHER MATTERS
In general I have given proper names in the vernacular rather than in
Latin— so “du Laurens” rather than “Laurentius,” “Stensen” rather than
“Steno,” and “Johnstone” rather than “Jonsonius.” There are a few excep-
tions, including Johannes Walaeus. There is little agreement about the lat-
ter’s name in Dutch (“de Wale”? “de Waal”?), and he is universally referred
to in secondary literature as “Walaeus.”
In referring to animals, when the gender of the animal is known, I refer
to it as “he” or “she.” Otherwise, “it” is used.
The year is assumed to begin on 1 January, as it did in France. Dates on
correspondence are given as their authors gave them.
On quotations from French and Latin: If there is a contemporary En-
glish translation, I have quoted from that (sometimes silently modified for
clarity), citing both the original and the translation. Most of the quotations
from the Histoire des animaux, therefore, rely on Alexander Pitfeild’s 1687
translation. Any translations without such citation are my own. While I have
retained the original spelling in seventeenth- century French quotations, I
have silently regularized the use of accents. I have, however, retained original
punctuation and other seventeenth- century diacriticals such as umlauts and
circumflexes.
On money: The French livre, or pound, in use until 1795, consisted of
twenty sols or sous, each of which was worth twelve deniers. It is notoriously
difficult to assess the value of money in the past. Suffice it to say that 1,500
livres, the amount that many original members of the Paris Academy re-
ceived as their pensions from the crown, would have been a reasonable
but not princely middle- class income in the 1660s. Most academicians had
other income sources, so they were not totally dependent on their pensions
(although some were). In comparison, Duverney’s garçon, or lab assistant,