Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Anita Guerrini
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Anatomy and the Origins of the Paris Academy of Sciences
The origins of the Paris Academy of Sciences, which held its first meeting at the end of 1666, have been the subject of much scholarly work. The emphasis in this work has overwhelmingly been on the physical sciences: on astronomy and the shape of the earth, on Cassini and Huyghens. But “mathématique,” which encompassed the physical sciences, was only half of the Academy’s enterprise. “Physique,” that is, the medical sciences, constituted the other half. The botanical activities of the Academy have found their historian, but anatomy has not. In this paper I will argue that anatomy -- both human and animal -- was in fact at the very center of the Academy’s activities, at the nexus of patronage, art, and learning surrounding its foundation.
4:00PM
Monday, April 7, 2008
140 Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
