A reassessment of the French Académie royale des sciences

under Colbert (1666-83) and Louvois (1683-91)

1. Introduction

The French Académie royale des sciences was founded in 1666 with the support of Louis XIV and placed under the direct control of a government minister. Initially, this minister was Jean-Baptiste Colbert. He was succeeded after his death on 6 September 1683 by François-Michel Le Tellier, marquis de Louvois, who died on 16 July 1691 (Bibliography).  Both men were outstanding administrators of great experience who exercised wide powers under the King. But they were also long-standing antagonists, with the result that the early history of the Academy has sometimes been reduced to the differences between them. Although, as a recent author put it, 'It would certainly be an oversimplification to think in terms of a simple manichaeisme: Colbert, the good genius of Louis XIV, and Louvois, his bad angel...', it is not hard to find authors discussing the Academy in just this way, as in the 19th Century histories by Maury and by Bertrand, while comparisons of the two men appear in many later studies.

    All authors seem to agree on at least one point, that Colbert and Louvois differed in their tastes and in their relation to the Academy and, consequently, in how their administrations affected the Academy's life and work. All authors also share one grave handicap: the absence of many contemporary records that would have been expected. Thus, there is no official record of how or when the Academy was founded and the Academy's minutes of its meetings at this period generally have no record of the election of new members or even the names of those that attended each meeting. Worst of all, the minutes for 1670-74 are missing entirely. As a result, much of the Academy's early history rests on anecdote and hearsay (notably Fontenelle's Histoire), fragmentary correspondence, and the use of such records as survive. The last include the official records of royal expenditure, the Comptes des bâtiments du roi, which also show expenditure on the Academy.  These have been quoted, notably by Stroup (1990), not from the original manuscripts but from the transcripts edited by J.-J.Guiffrey (1881-1901).  However, on comparing Guiffrey with the originals, it became clear that his edition was sometimes seriously misleading, even as to calendar years, and that its interpretation was far from self-evident, as will be seen from App.1. The entries in the accounts that relate to the scientific work of the Academy are numerous and  a database was used here to analyse the expenditure as given in the original registers (1). This enabled expenditure to be calculated rapidly for the whole period considered here, 1666-91, or for a single year or any other desired interval, or for individual categories like capital expenditure or the academicians' pay. The results appear in Figures 1-5 and show, amongst other things, how the Academy's structure changed over the years.

   A celebrated incident occurred in 1686, about three years after Louvois' tenure began, which has been frequently quoted to his discredit. On 30 January, the Academy was presented with a memoir in Louvois' name which discussed what work it might undertake in the future and which has given rise to comments like  making 'une distinction fausse et grossière entre les recherches utiles et la science de pure curiosité' (2).  But, on examining the original memoir (published in full here for the first time: App.2), it became clear, first, that its bad reputation arose from it being misquoted and, second, that it contained allusions which had previously been overlooked so that its purpose had been misunderstood, in particular its references to alchemy.  There seems little doubt that the memoir  was a direct consequence of the death the previous year of the academician, Samuel Duclos, who had been a practising alchemist for many years, as he made clear on his death-bed (Mallon, 181; App 3).

2. General Bibliography

(a) Abbreviations used in references.
Guide: Éric Brian & C.Demeulenaere-Douyère, eds, Histoire et Mémoire de l'Académie des Sciences. Guide de Recherches (Paris, 1996). See p.57 for the Index Biographique des Membres et Correspondants de l'Académie des Sciences which is followed here. Reg.: the registers containing  the contemporary minutes of the Academy's meetings based on the procès-verbaux - the procedure before 1699 is uncertain (Guide, 61-4). I-II, Mémoire III-X: Histoire et Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, published in Paris, 1733, in eleven quarto volumes (Guide, 115-6). The first two volumes, Histoire I and II, are a history of the Academy, based on the procès-verbaux for 1666-99 and on Du Hamel's published history (Paris, 1698; 2nd edn, 1701), which were written by Fontenelle up to the end of 1679 according to the Avertissement in Histoire I.  Mémoires III-X (VII is in two parts) are new editions of monographs published previously whose contents are listed at the start of Histoire I. Mémoire XI contains titles of 97 papers in the Journal des Savants, 1693-99, by academicians other than Huygens, Mariotte and Perrault.  After 1699, the Histoire and Mémoire for each year were printed together in a separate volume. Clément: Pierre Clément, Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Colbert, 8 vols (Paris, 1861-82. Reprint, Nendeln, 1979). CdB: Jules Guiffrey (ed.), Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi, 5 vols (Paris, 1881-1901. From the series Documents Inédits sur l'Histoire de France). Old.: The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. and trans. by Arnold R.Hall and M.B.Hall, 13 vols (Madison, Milwaukee and London, 1966-). Louv.: Camille Rousset, Histoire de Louvois et de Son Administration Politique et Militaire, 2nd edn, 4 vols (Paris, 1862-64). See also Jean-Claude Devos and M.-A. Corvisier-de Villèle, Service Historique de l'Armee de Terre. Guide des Archives et Sources Complémentaires, série A (Vincennes, 1996).   Picard: Guy Picolet, ed., Jean Picard et les débuts de l'astronomie de précision au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1987).   B.N.F.: Bibliothèque nationale de France. A.N.: Archives nationales, Paris.

(b) The Academy.
The archives and literature are extensively reviewed in two important Ph.D. theses, neither of which has, unfortunately, been published: Elmo S.Saunders, The Decline and Reform of the Académie des Sciences à Paris, 1676-1699 (Ohio State University, 1980), and Adrian C.J.F.Mallon, Science and Government in France, 1661-1699. Changing Patterns of Scientific Research and Development (Queen's University, Belfast, 1983. Part appeared in C.M.R.17: De la Mort de Colbert à la Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes: Un Monde Nouveau? Actes du XIVe colloque du Centre Méridional de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Janvier, 1984). Marseilles, 1985). Published histories of the 17th century Academy include: L.-A.Maury, L'Ancienne Académie des Sciences, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1864). Joseph L.F.Bertrand, L'Académie des Sciences et les Académiciens de 1666 à 1793 (Paris, 1869. Repr. Amsterdam, 1969). Ernest Maindron, L'Académie des Sciences (Paris, 1888). René Taton, Les Origines de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1966). John M.Hirschfield, The Académie Royale des Sciences (1666-83): Inauguration and Initial Problems of Method (New York, 1981). Alice Stroup, A Company of Scientists. Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth- Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences (Berkeley, Los Angeles & Oxford, 1990). David J.Sturdy, Science and Social Status. The Members of the Académie des Sciences, 1666-1770 (Woodbridge, 1995).

(c) Colbert and Louvois.
The literature on Colbert and Louvois is vast but see, for example, François Bluche, ed. Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle (Paris, 1990); Colbert, 1619-1683 (Catalogue of the exhibition, Hôtel de la Monnaie, Paris, 1983); Ernest Lavisse, Louis XIV. Histoire d'un Grand Régne, 1643-1715 (new edition in one vol. by R. & S.Pillorget, Paris, 1989. For earlier editions, see i-xxi); Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV et Vingt Millions de Français (Paris, 1966; English translation, New York, 1970); Robert Mandrou, Louis XIV en Son Temps, 1661-1715 (Paris, 1973); André Corvisier, ed., Louvois. In: Histoire, Économie et Société, 15 (1996), 1-176. See also the biographies of Louis XIV by François Bluche (Paris, 1984; English translation, Oxford, 1990); Joël Cornette, Chronique du Règne de Louis XIV (Paris, 1997); of Colbert by Inés Murat (Paris, 1980) and Jean Meyer (Paris, 1981); and of Louvois by André Corvisier (Paris, 1983) and Aimé Richardt (Paris, 1990).

3. Features of the Academy's accounts

The Academy was administered by Colbert (and later by Louvois) as part of the Bâtiments du roi, a vast department of which he was surintendant, whose wide-ranging responsibilities extended from massive projects like the building and upkeep of royal châteaux down to occasional payments for labour and materials. Its accounts survive as the Comptes du Bâtiments du roi from which Guiffrey prepared the transcripts that have generally been used (3).
   Guiffrey's edition has serious defects which have not been recognized and are discussed in detail in App.1, but to give some examples: (a) the 'year' shown there is not a calendar year, as might appear, or even a fixed period. It is an accounting period or exercice (4) starting on 1st January of the year in question but ending a variable time later which was, however, always more than 12 months; (b) to save space, related entries are often pooled, even when they fall in different calendar years; (c) each entry may include completely unrelated items placed together under the same date; (d) errors arose because Guiffrey failed to transcribe some dates from the originals but introduced others of his own; (e) the record of the Academy is incomplete after Louvois died in 1691, when the Academy's expenditure, including gratifications but not pensions (5), were transferred from the Comptes to the Trésor royal (6).

   Other difficulties arise elsewhere. In Stroup's book, entries taken from Guiffrey, not the original accounts, are summarized in a series of Tables (7).  These resemble Guiffrey in grouping separate entries which cannot be distinguished (8). It is clear, however, that these Tables show expenditure as being due to the Academy which was, in fact, charged to other accounts like Versailles (9).  Moreover, the purchase of a second house, no.10 rue Vivienne, for the Academy and the royal library is ignored (10); personal expenses are sometimes treated as remuneration, and the data, as presented, make it appear that many academicians were not paid in 1681-1683, an artefact due to payments being made at irregular intervals (11).  In Guiffrey, three bills attributed to Patel in 1:151 were actually amongst five bills from Nicolas Clérambault for alterations and repairs after the Academy took possession of the houses in the rue Vivienne (12).

   All the Academy's accounts have therefore been reworked from the original manuscripts, apparently for the first time. The data have been analysed using a uniform period of 12 months to allow direct comparisons, each starting from 1st July, because the Academy began halfway through 1666, and ending on 30th June, because Louvois died halfway through 1691.  Thus, there are three 'years' to be distinguished here: these 12-month periods written as, e.g. 67/68; whereas an exercice such as that beginning 1 January 69 is written '69; and the calendar year is shown as 1669. Furthermore, the trend of expenditure has been made clearer by considering, not individual items, but broad categories like capital expenditure or remuneration. The 1,526 individual entries were entered in a database, so enabling them to be readily sorted by date, object or other criteria, and the corresponding expenditure to be totalled automatically for the above 12-month periods or for a exercice, calendar year, or any other desired period (13).

4.Aspects of expenditure

The Academy was founded at an unusually propitious moment in French history. Wars with France's neighbours had ended for the time being with the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), internal uprisings against the King were a thing of the past, and the national finances had come into balance, thanks to Colbert, intendant des finances since 1661 (Fig.1a: 14).

   The national deficit gradually increased later on as new wars broke out but by '72, a large part (45%)  of the total cost of the Academy had been met (namely, 946,425 livres out of the total 2,094,763 l. spent in 66/67-90/91: 15). This arose chiefly from the cost of building to accommodate the academicians (shown by the lower two bars in Fig.1b).  By the time Colbert died on 6 September 1683, 86% of all expenditure on the Academy in this period had already been incurred; namely, out of the total 2,094,763 l., 1,815,798 l. had already been spent.  These sums may appear enormous but when it is realized that in the exercice '82 alone, when national expenditure reached a peak of 199,624,645 l., the Academy cost only an insignificant 54,900 l.

Fig.1b. Total expenditure on the Academy, 66/67-90/91.
Ordinate: thousands of livres . Abscissa: successive 12-month periods,starting with July 1666.
Note that the scale differs from Fig.1a.
An unknown fraction of expenditure on the rue Vivienne was due to the library.
'All other expenditure' excludes Thevenot's accounts {link}

   The Academy appears to have been immune to the growth in the national deficit at this period. In '82 it reached nearly 120,500,00 l. (Fig.1a), yet expenditure on the Academy actually increased, judging from either the yearly figures or their 2-year averages (inset). Yearly expenditure apparently became extremely erratic after 77/78. In part at least, this is an artefact due to payments not being made at precisely regular intervals, due possibly to the state of the national finances. In the early days of the Academy the academicians received their gratifications about every twelve months but in 81/82 and 83/84, for example, the biologists apparently received no gratification at all. However, when the actual dates are checked, the last payment in 80/81 is found to be on 6 April  1681, just before the beginning of 81/82, and the next came on 22 July 1682, just after the start of 82/83, making a gap of 15 months, not 24 months as might appear. At the very end of the period, the data are truncated because the entries in the Comptes des bâtiments for 90/91 end at 18 September 1691 (3.441) due to their transfer to the Trésor royal after Louvois' death, so that expenditure for that year appears to be correspondingly less (16).

   The form taken by the Academy's expenses reflect the way in which it was set up. From its very beginning, it comprised two main groups of academicians devoted to 'Physique' and 'Mathématique', which were regarded as complementary (17). (A third group of academicians, not considered here, comprised administrators like Du Hamel, Galloys and Bessé de la Chapelle). The first group of expenses therefore arose from those academicians concerned with mathematics and physical sciences (referred to here as the 'mathematicians': see Table 1) who were based at the Observatory to the south of Paris after 1671. The second group arose from those academicians studying biology and medicine (here, the 'biologists') who, with the royal library, occupied the two houses in the rue Vivienne in central Paris known as the 'Bibliothèque du roi' (18).

   The two groups of scientists differ markedly when their costs are compared. The most obvious difference is that the mathematicians cost considerably more than the biologists. The Observatory, built for the astronomers to the design of Claude Perrault, turned out to be an architectural masterpiece but at a cost of 693,442 l. or about one third of all expenditure up to 90/91 (21), whereas alterations to the houses in the rue Vivienne cost only 102,606 l.

Fig.2 Expenditure on the mathematicians. Ordinate: livres (thousands).
The abrupt fall in gratifications from 75/76 onwards is considered in Fig.5.

Fig.3. Expenditure on the biologists. The ordinate is to the same scale as in Fig.2

    Excluding expenditure on buildings, the mathematicians cost 629,222 l. in contrast to 336,230 l. for the biologists (Figs.2 and 3). This arose partly because they included the two most highly paid academicians, Cassini and Huygens, who respectively received 9,000 and 6,000 l. yearly compared to the more usual 1,500-2,000 l. In addition, the mathematicians spent considerably more on capital items like equipment (the peak in 85/86 was due to a concave mirror costing 9,000 l., 2:666).

   The two groups also differed in the ways in which their costs changed as the years passed.  Allowing for the irregularites of 78/79-83/84, the cost of the biologists remained about the same throughout until 89/90. On the other hand, the mathematicians show a very different picture which reflects a fundamental change in the Academy's organization. Note first the abrupt decrease in the total amount spent on gratifications after 75/76 (the lowest bar in Fig.2). This total can be divided into gratifications for (a) the élèves (i.e. assistants or pupils), represented by the lowest bar in Fig.4 below: (22); (b) the mathematicians (middle bar); and (c) the balance (upper bar).

[1] M. De La Chapelle a donné un memoire pour mettre dans les Registres, conceu en ces termes le 30e de Janvier 1686.
   [1] M. De La Chapelle gave a memoir to be put in the registers, expressed as follows the 30th January 1686.
[2] I'ay desia, dit il, eu l'honneur de dire a l'academie que Monseigneur de Louvois demande ce que l'on pourra faire au laboratoire, il m'a ordonné d'en parler encore, et ie vous supplie Messieurs en executant ses ordres, de me pardonner si ie ne m'explique pas bien selon les termes de la Chymie.
   [2] I have already, he said, had the honour to say to the Academy that Monseigneur de Louvois is asking what could be done in the laboratory (87). He has ordered me to raise the matter again, and I beseech you to pardon me, gentlemen, if, in carrying out his orders, I do not use chemical terms correctly.
[3] Ne peut on pas considerer ce travail ou comme une recherche curieuse, ou comme une recherche utile.
   [3] Can one not regard this work either as pure research or as applied research for a useful end.
[4] I'appelle recherche curieuse ce qui n'est qu'une pure curiosité, un ieu et pour ainsi dire un amusement des Chymistes. Cette Compagnie est trop illustre et a des applications trop serieuses pour ne s'attacher icy qu'a une simple Curiosité.
   [4] I call pure research, which arises solely from curiosity, a game, and so to speak a diversion of chemists. This Company is too distinguished and has projects which are too serious to be governed by simple curiosity.
[5a] I'entends une recherche utile ce qui peut avoir rapport au Service du Roy et de l'Estat; [5b] pas[?] le grand oeuvre qui comprend aussi l'extraict des Mercurs de tous les metaux, leur transmutation ou leur multiplication, dont Monseigr de Louvois ne veut point entendre parler [5c] ou bien la recherche  et l'examen des mines minieres de France, et de toutes les Compositions sulphurées qui servent a la guerre, ou de celles qui peuvent addoucir l'eau de la mer et la rendre bonne a boire.
   [5a] I understand by useful research that which could relate to the service of the King and the State; [5b] -- not the Great Work which also includes the extraction of Mercuries  from all sorts of metals, their transmutation or multiplication, which Monseigneur de Louvois does not wish to hear spoken of -- [5c] or else the investigation and examination of the mines and open-cast workings of France, as well as of all the sulphur-containing compounds used in war, or those able to desalinate sea water and make it fit to drink.
[6] L'autre recherche plus convenable a cette Compagnie et qui seroit plus du goust de Monseigneur de Louvois regarde tout ce qui peut illustrer la Physique et servir a la Medecine, ces deux choses estant presque inseparables parceque la medecine tire des Consequences et profite des nouvelles decouvertes de la Physique.
   [6] The other research more suited to this Company and which would be more to the taste of Monseigneur de Louvois concerns everything that could explain Physique and serve Medicine, these two things being almost inseparable because Medicine draws on the results and profits from new discoveries of Physique.
[7] Neantmoins si la Compagnie iuge a propos de travailler a ce qui regarde principalement la physique, ne pourroit elle pas en achevant l'analyse des plantes, observer aussi leurs saveurs et examiner si leur sels sont semblables a ceux des terres, et ioindre ces remarques dans ce grand ouvrage, qu'elle a entrepris pour servir a l'histoire des Plantes (88).
   [7] Nevertheless, if the Company judges it fitting to work on what chiefly concerns Physique, could it not, while carrying out the analyses of plants, observe also their tastes and note if their salts are similar to those of the soil, and incorporate these observations in the great work it has undertaken on plants.
[8a] Si l'on veut travailler a d'autres analyses ne pourroit on pas faire celle des pierres depuis le Caillou iusqu'aux pierres precieuses, et y ioindre celles du Corail, des perles et de l'ambre gris [8b] si l'on aime mieux s'appliquer a la Chymie Medicinale et si la Compagnie ne craint point les tempestes que ses observations pourroient exciter dans les facultes de Medecine et parmy les Empyriques qui l'empescheroit de choisir dans le Theatre Chymique les autheurs les plus celebres, et de desabuser les hommes ou sur les remedes particuliers qu'ils ont inventés ou sur cette recherche inutile du remede universel qui est comme la pierre philosophale (89).
   [8a] If one wishes to perform other analyses, could one not analyse stones, from pebbles up to gems and include coral, pearls and ambergris, [8b] if one prefers to concentrate on medicinal chemistry, and if the Company is not afraid of the storms that its observations could arouse in the Faculties of Medicine and amongst the Empirics who would prevent it selecting the most celebrated authors from the Theatre Chymique, and from disillusioning people about the cures they have devised or the futile search for the universal remedy like the philosopher's stone.
[9] Ne pouroit on pas reimprimer et augmenter le petit livre des Eaux minerales qui porte le nom de Mr du Clos en expliquant plus au long ce qu'elles ont d'utile ou de nuisible,90 ou par elles mesmes, ou par l'usage que les Medecins en ordonnent dans les maladies faute d'en bien connoistre les proprietez.
   [9] Could one not reprint and enlarge the little book on mineral waters which bears the name of M. du Clos, explaining more fully what they have that is useful or harmful, either in themselves or as ordered by physicians in illness without a thorough understanding of their properties.
[10] Ne seroit il pas a propos de faire en mesme temps l'analyse des vins naturels des differens terroirs du Royaume et des autres paÿs, et mesme des vins de liqueur qui sont le plus en usage parmy nous pour en tirer des inductions utiles a la santé.
   [10] Would it not be opportune at the same time to analyse the natural  wines of different soils of the Kingdom and of other countries, and even the fortified wines that are most used amongst us, in order to draw conclusions beneficial to health.
[11] Ne seroit ce point une occupation digne de la Compagnie de faire chercher des dissoluants par la boisson contre les pierres des Rheins comme le Chevalier Boury pretendoit en avoir trouve (91); d'examiner si les remedes pratiqués contre la goutte ont quelque fondement, comme celuy du Chirugien de l'Illers en Flandre qui est composé de crane d'homme mort du dernier supplice, et qu'elle vertu l'urine d'un goutteux peut avoir pour le soulager en la beuvant comme plusieurs personnes le pratiquent auiourdhuy.
   [11] Would it not be an occupation worthy of the Company to look for solvents of kidney stones taken by mouth, such as those the Chevalier Boury claims to have found; to see if the remedies against gout have any foundation, like that of the surgeon at Lillers in Flanders which is composed of the skull of a man who suffered the extreme penalty [execution]; and what power drinking the urine of a gouty person could have in relieving pain, as several people practise today.
[12] Enfin ne seroit il pas permis d'examiner les effets du Mercure, et de l'antimoine, du quinquina, du lodanon et du pavot selon les differentes preparations, et de faire des analyses exactes du Thé, du Caffé, du Cacao dont l'usage les rend si commun soit comme des remedes, soit comme des aliments.
   [12] Finally, might it not be as well to examine the effects of mercury, and of antimony (92), quinquina, laudanum and poppy, in different preparations, and to make exact analyses of tea, coffee and cocoa, widely used as remedies or as foods.
 

Appendix 3. Death-bed declaration by Samuel Duclos,
20 August 1685.
(Nouvelles de la République des Lettres,
October 1685, pp.1139-1143, uncorrected)

L'Académie des Sciences a perdu depuis quelque temps un de ses membres par la mort de M. du Clos. C'étoit un Médicin âgé de 87. ans qui logeoit dans la maison où est la Bibliotheque du Roi. Il ne s'étoit pas fort attaché à voir des malades, & il avoit mieux aimé donner son temps à l'étude, aux experiences Chymiques, & à la recherche de la Pierre Philosophale. C'est ce qui donna lieu à M. Clement qui loge dans la même maison comme préposé à la garde de la Bibliotheque de sa Majesté sous M.Thevenot de faire faire à ce bon vieillard la Déclaration suivante (93).

Copie d'un écrit dressé par M. Clement contenant la déclaration que
M.du Clos a faite peu avant sa mort touchant la Pierre Philosophale.

Le 20. Août 1685. M.du Clos Médecin étant au lit malade, mais sain d'esprit & de jugement, je m'approchai de lui pour lui demander s'il n'avoit rien à dire touchant ses écrits; il me dit que si on m'en parloit, il me prioit de rendre témoignage qu'il n'avoit point d'ouvrage entier qu'un traité des sels & des mixtes qu'il avoit mis entre les mains de M.de la Chappelle; qu'il avoit eu dessein depuis longtemps de donner ce traité au public; que M.Colbert & une bonne partie de l'Académie l'avoit approuvé, mais que M.du Hamel s'y étant toujours opposé à cause de quelques opinions qu'il ne pouvoit passer il n'avoit pû obtenir la permission de le faire imprimer, ce qui l'avoit obligé d'en donner une partie à Elzevier qui étoit pour lors à Paris, & qui le fit imprimer à Amsterdam.  A l'égard des autres écrits il me déclara qu'il les avoit brûlez depuis cinq ou six mois (94). Je lui fis connoitre le tort qu'il avoit eu de priver ses amis des connoissances qu'on auroit pû tirer de tant de belles observations; mais il me dit que ce n'étoit que des fragmens informes & sans aucune suite; que voyant qu'il n'étoit pas en état de les digerer, ni de les mettres en ordre & personne ne pouvant le faire aprés lui dans le même esprit, il avoit mieux aimé les mettre au feu. Que d'ailleurs M.Friquet son Neveu qui est Peintre & Professeur en Anatomie dans l'Académie Roiale de Peinture travaillant dans son Art avec assez de succés, il avoit apprehendé que trouvant aprés sa mort ces écrits, dont la plupart étoient des observations & des expériences sur la transmutation des métaux, cela ne lui donnât occasion de s'engager dans des recherches qui l'auroient détourné de sa profession & qui lui auroient fait perdre son temps & son bien inutilement.
    Je pris occasion là-dessus de lui representer qu'il seroit sans doute avantageux pour le public, & même pour le service du Roi, qu'un homme aussi habile que lui, & qui avoit emploié la plus belle partie de sa vie à la recherche des causes naturelles, particuliérment en ce qui regarde la transmutation des métaux, & en ce qui s'appelle le grand oeuvre, fit connoitre ce qu'il pensoit de l'utilité, ou de l'inutilité de cette recherche, & que l'aveu qu'il en feroit dans l'état où il étoit, seroit d'un grand poids pour retenir ceux qui s'engagoient trop facilement dans cette malheureuse passion de soufflerie; il me répondit avec une presence & une force d'esprit admirable, qu'il étoit prest de témoigner que toutes les recherches qu'il avoit faites n'avoient servi qu'à le confirmer dans la pensée où il étoit, qu'il n'y avoit rien de plus vain ni de plus inutile que l'esperance dont on se flattoit de pouvoir parvenir à la transmutation des métaux, que pour cela il faloit en résoudre les esprits pour leur faire changer de nature, ce qui n'étoit pas possible.
   Il me dit en suite, je ne sçaurois vous rien dire de mieux là-dessus que ce que répondit Bernadous Penotus à Portu Stæ.Mariæ dans le même état où je suis. Ce bon homme étoit âgé de prés de cent ans, & avoit passé presque toute sa vie à la recherche de la Pierre Philosophale dont il a même laissé quelques écrits. Etant au lit de la mort, ses Disciples & ses amis s'assemblerent à l'entour de lui pour lui faire la même question, mais il ne leur fit autre réponse, sinon, Mes amis, si vous avez un puissant ennemi à qui vous vouliez beaucoup de mal, souhaitez-lui cette passion, c'est le plus grand mal que vous puissez lui souhaiter.
   Je demandai à M.du Clos, s'il ne voudroit pas bien pour la satisfaction de ses amis que j'écrivisse sous lui ce qu'il voudroit me dire là-dessus, il me dit qu'il n'étoit pas pour lors en état, & que s'il se sentoit l'esprit assez libre, il le feroit volontiers. Mais ses forces ont toujours diminue depuis sans que j'aye pû trouver le temps de tirer de lui cette déposition en forme. Et comme il m'a toujours distingué parmi ceux qu'il honoroit de son amité & de sa confiance pendant plus de quinze ans que nous avons vécu dans une même maison, j'ai crû devoir rendre à sa mémoire ce témoignage public, en faisant connoître ce que j'ai entendu de ses sentimens a peu prés dans les termes qu'il me les a expliquez. L'estime & la réputation qu'il s'étoit acquises parmi les honnétes gens qui le connoissoient feront peut-être qu'on ne sera pas fâché de voir ce qu'il pensoit d'une chose pour laquelle il a employé tant d'expériences & tant de belles connoissances sans autre succes que celui d'en avoir reconnu la vanité, en un temps où rien ne l'obligeoit à dissimuler ses veritables sentimens.

******************

The Academy of Sciences has recently lost one of its members by the death of M.du Clos. He was a physician aged 87 who lived in the house containing the Bibliothèque du roi. He disliked attending the sick, and he preferred to give his time to study, to chemical experiments, and to research on the Philosopher's Stone. This is how M. Clément, who lives in the same house as proposé à la garde of the King's Library under M.Thevenot, came to make the following declaration on behalf of this good man.

Copy of a manuscript by M.Clément containing the declaration that M.du Clos made shortly before his death concerning the Philosopher's Stone.

The 20 August 1685, Monsieur du Clos, physician, being on his sick bed but sound in mind and judgement, I approached him to ask if he had anything to say concerning his writings;  he told me that if I was spoken to about them, he begged me to bear witness that he had no complete work except a treatise on salts and mixtures that he had put in the hands of M.de la Chapelle; that he had meant for a long time to publish this treatise; that M.Colbert and a substantial proportion of the Academy had approved it, but that M.du Hamel, being always opposed to it on account of certain opinions that he could not accept, he had not been able to obtain permission to get it printed, a fact that obliged him to give one part to Elsevier who was at the time in Paris, & who printed it in Amsterdam. Regarding the other writings, he stated that he had burnt them five or six months before. I let him know the wrong he had done in depriving his friends of the knowledge to be drawn from so many fine observations; but he told me that they were only formless fragments and nothing more; that, seeing that he was in no state to analyse them nor to put them in order & no one after him being capable of doing it in the same spirit, he preferred to put them in the fire. That, moreover, M. Friquet, his nephew who is a painter and professor of anatomy in the Royal Academy of Painting, tolerably successful in his field, he feared that if after his death he found these writings, most of which were observations and experiments on the transmutation of metals, that that would give him the opportunity to take up research that would divert him from his profession and cause him to waste his time and resources so uselessly.

   Upon which, I took the opportunity to put it to him that it would undoubtedly be advantageous to the general public, and even to the service of the King, if a man as able as he is, and who had employed the best part of his life to research on natural causes, particularly those concerning transmutation of metals and on that called the Great Work, should make known what he thought of the usefulness or uselessness of such research & that the acknowledgement he would make about it in the state he was in would have great weight in keeping those who engage too readily in this unfortunate passion for the art of the bellows; he replied with admirable presence and strength of mind that he was ready to swear that all the research he had done had served only to confirm him in his present way of thinking, that there was nothing more futile nor more useless than holding out the hope of being able to arrive at the transformation of metals, for that required them to change their essences, which was not possible.

   He afterwards said to me, I should not know anything better to say to you on the subject than that which Bernadous Penotus said at Portu Stae.Mariae when in the same state as I am. This good man was nearly 100 years old and had passed almost all his life in the search for the Philosopher's Stone about which he has even left some written works. On his death bed his disciples and friends assembled round him to ask him the same question, but he made them no other reply but, 'My friends, if you had a powerful enemy towards whom you wished great harm, hope that he has this passion, that is the greatest harm you can hope for him.'

   I asked M. du Clos if, for the satisfaction of his friends, he would not be happy for me to write under his direction what he wished me to say on the subject, he told me that he was not in a fit state at that moment and that if he felt his mind clear enough, he would willingly do it. But his strength has diminished ever since without my being able to find the [right] time to extract from him a coherent statement. And since he has always singled me out among those whom he honoured with his friendship and trust during the last 15 years that we have lived in the same house, I have believed it necessary to offer to his memory this testimony, making known what I heard of his feelings more or less in the words in which he explained them. The esteem and reputation he acquired amongst the worthy men who knew him will perhaps ensure that they will not be distressed to see what he thought about a question to which he had applied so many experiments and so much fine knowledge without other success than that of having recognised its futility, at a time when nothing obliged him to conceal his true beliefs.

 

7. Notes & References

     (1) Saunders, 44, recorded his data on punchcards. The present database, in the form of an exported delimited file and a sample record, can be downloaded here from Appendix 4.
     (2) Bertrand, 40.
     (3) The first three volumes are quoted here. Each page is printed in double columns with separate numbering. Thus, '1:274' refers to vol.1, col.274.
     (4) Exercice: Procédé comptable qui divise la vie de l'entreprise en périodes comprises entre deux inventaires, d'une durée correspondant souvent à l'année civile, mais parfois plus longue ou plus courte (Grande Larousse Universel, Paris 1992). The present database, in the form of an exported delimited file and a sample record, can be downloaded here from Appendix 4.
     (5) Pension and gratification are often confused. 'Pension' implies repeated payments authorized by brevet (see A.N. O¹ 1-128), an 'attribution durable' (Bluche, Dictionnaire, 1182). A 'gratification' was not necessarily repeated or durable (e.g. payment for an isolated repair). The pensions for Dacquin and other staff of the Jardin royal were authorized by brevet and, after Louvois,  continued to be shown in the Comptes whereas the annual payments to academicians were gratifications and were transferred to the Trésor royal. Du Verney received both a pension and a gratification (cp. 3:120 and 3:126). Gratifications had the administrative advantage that they could be varied year on year without formality, e.g. when Huygens' emoluments were stopped while he was away ill in Holland in 1676-78 (1:925). The annual gratifications for those living outside France, such as Viviani and Conring, which began in 66/67, were ended by 73/74.
     (6) The accounts of the Trésor royal are in A.N. série G⁷.  Saunders, 6, 31. Stroup, Royal Funding, Appendix A.
     (7) Stroup, Company, Tables 1-17.
     (8) For example, in Table 3, '1685' refers to seven columns in Guiffrey (not seven individual entries) from which Stroup extracted totals for five of her columns. Unfortunately, she has so far published only summaries of this kind and not the details of the individual entries she used.
     (9) Stroup, Company, Table 4, column (c), 'Surveying for water-supply of Versailles', includes costs allotted to the Versailles or Louvre accounts, not to the Academy (1:1067, 1181, 1313; 2:496, 497). Likewise, Gobert's pay is included (2:564) although he had no connection with the Academy. Moving the Tour de Marly to the Observatory was not charged to the Academy (2:775, 976).
    (10) Guy Meynell, 'The Académie des sciences at the rue Vivienne, 1666-1699', Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 44 (1994), 22-37. Guy Meynell, 'André de Monceaux, F.R.S. 1670', Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, 47 (1993), pp.11-15.
    (11) Stroup, Company, 279 and Table 1. Thus, Huygens' remuneration is shown as 5,000 l. in '1666' but that includes expenses of 1,000 l. and separate gratifications of 2,000, 1,500 and 500 l.
    (12) Maindron, Académie, p.6 note. A contemporary memoir detailing the work is now lost (Meynell, Vivienne, note 29).
    (13) Given decimal currency, total expenditure etc. can be calculated automatically by standard programmes.  The original units were livres tournois, sous and deniers in the ratio 1:20:12. In converting to decimals, deniers were ignored (most entries have zero deniers) and the number of sous was rounded down (e.g. 1001. 14s. 11d. became 100.70 l.).
    (14) Histoire I, 5.  Lavisse, livre 2. Richardt, Colbert, 90-122. Alain Guéry, 'Les finances de la monarchie française sous l'ancien régime,' Annales ESC 33 (1978), 216-239. Fuller data are in the posthumous work by Jean-Roland Malet, edited by N.Desmaretz, Comptes Rendus de l'Administration des Finances du Royaume de France (London, 1789. Available on microfilm). Malet's tables have been edited by Margaret & Richard Bonney, Jean-Roland Malet, Premier Historien des Finances de La Monarchie Française (Paris, 1993).
    (15) This figure of 2,094,763 l. is not comparable to Stroup's total of  2,123,325 l. for the same period (see Company, 268, columns a. and b.). She included items charged to other accounts (see note 9) and overlooked the 84,400 l. spent on the second house in the rue Vivienne (1: 311, 315, 383. Meynell, Vivienne, 25).
    (16) If exercices are used, the academicians' pay appears to fall by 2/3rds in '90 (see Stroup, Company, Table 1, p.237).
    (17) 'La Geometrie n'a presque aucune utilité si elle n'est appliquée à la Phisique; & la Phisique n'a de solidité qu'autant qu'elle est fondée sur la Geometrie', Histoire I , 7, 12, 14.
    (18) For detail, see Meynell, Vivienne.
    (19) In Stroup, Company, 'shared expenses' are shown separately and have to be added to 'direct expenditure' to find the maximum expended (e.g. p.268).
     (20)  Carcavi was dismissed by Louvois during 83/84 and thereafter the shared expenses apparently fell sharply.  Whether this fall is real or an artefact is uncertain because the Academy's expenses must have continued although there is no indication of who paid them. The bills of Carcavi's successor, Thevenot, refer only to the library (e.g., 2:1199 for '87). If Thevenot's payments are assumed to include the Academy as well as the library, then the shared expenses continued more or less the same after Carcavi left (Fig.5). The next largest item is even more doubtful, 24,144 l. paid to Loir from 79/80 onwards for thousands of silver jetons (e.g., 1:1342 or 2:377), which, as far as is known, were used by the Académie française but only rarely by the Académie des sciences.

Fig.5. Shared expenses (see note 20).

    (21) Antoine Picon, Claude Perrault, 1613-1688, ou la curiosité d'un classique (Paris, 1988), pp.197-232.
    (22) When the Academy began, the 14 founding academicians (Table 1) were provided with junior helpers described by Fontenelle as assistants (Histoire 1, 13. Perrault, Mémoires, p.140 [1993 ed.]); namely, Niquet, Couplet, Richer, Pivert and de la Voye, who are called éléves in the Academy's Index Biographique (Sturdy, chap.8). All these  had left by 1676 except Couplet who was joined by Rolle in 1682 (2:237).
    (23) J.A.van Maanen, 'Chronology', in  H.J.M.Bos et al., Studies on Christiaan Huygens (Lisse, 1980), 19-26. Kurt M.Pedersen, 'La vie et l'oeuvre de Roemer', in Roemer et la Vitesse de la Lumiére. Table ronde du C.N.R.S. (Paris, 1978), 113-128 (pp.121-2).
    (24) Niquet, Couplet, Richer, Pivert, De la Voye [La Voye-Mignot]. Histoire I, 13.  Note that a third category, the associez, junior to the academicians but senior to the éléves, was later introduced by the Réglement of 1699 (see, for example, Histoire 1699, 3-13. Maindron, chapter 2. Guide, 409-413).
    (25) In practice, occasional assistants was used almost from the start for specific projects. For example, instruments or models (Laury, '66, 1:163; Guerrier, '69, 1:379), mapping (Vivier or 'Duvivier'), '68-; 1:278-; Beaulieu, '69, 1:361) or the laboratory (Kemps, '70, 1:448). What distinguished such assistants from professional instrument makers like Gosselin ('67, 1:232), Le Moine ('67, 1:232) or Buirette ('70, 1:448) is not made clear.
    (26) A wellknown example shows the academicians gathered round the dissection of a fox, engraved by Sébastien Leclerc. Reproduced by Maindron, 16; Stroup, Company, 42.
    (27)  (Maps of Paris and its surroundings, 1669, and of France, publ.1693). Espace français. Vision et aménagement, XVIe-XIXe siécle (Exhibition, A.N. Paris, 1987-88), exhibit 39 etc.. Lucie Lagarde, 'Contribution de l'Abbé Picard à la cartographie', in Picard, pp.247-261 (Longitude, astronomy). Numerous articles in Picard (1987). John W.Olmsted, 'The scientific expedition of Jean Richer to Cayenne (1672-1673)', Isis 34 (1942), 117-128. (The Eure Canal). Pierre Clément, Le Gouvernement de Louis XIV (Paris, 1848), chapter IX. Louv.: III (1864), pp.383-401. See the following by F.Évrard: Annales de Géographie (1933), 583-600; Revue de l'histoire de Versailles (1933), 96-129, 131-151.
    (28) may help to explain the disappearance of the class of éléves because they had  generally received occasional bonuses as well as larger gratifications of 600-1,000 l. (see, for example, Niquet, 1:378, 388, or Niquet, Vivier, Pivert and Dupuy, 1: 471).
    (29) Details of their work and lives are scattered. See, for example, Histoire I, 159, 199, 330-448 (especially 383), and Histoire II, 13, 32-3, 43-4, 53, 57, 59, 62, 68, 92 and 97. CdB 1:163, 273, 363, 379, 549, 550, 712, 1212; 2:104, 1009, 1073. Reg.10, fol.78r, 110r; 11, fol.13v, 15v, 121r, 126r, 134r; and 12, fol.79r.  [A. de Claustre] Table Générale des Matières...Journal des Savans...1665 jusqu'en 1750 (Paris, 1753-64). Charles B.Paul, Science and Immortality. The Eloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699-1791) (Berkeley, 1980), appendices. The index in Mallon's thesis (1983).  Guide, 263-283. Sturdy (1995). Roger Hahn, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution. The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666-1803 (Berkeley, 1971), 330-373.
    (30) Histoire I, 383.
    (31) Bertrand, 44. Saunders, 46-58.  See Fontenelle's éloges of Galloys (1707) and Homberg (1715) in the Histoires for those years.
    (32) Stroup, Company, 51-6.
    (33) Meynell, Vivienne, 37. Guide, 1-11.
    (34) Maury, 37. Bertrand, 40. Stroup, Company, 52. Guide, 9-11.
    (35) Acad. sci. Reg.11, fol.24r. Cp. also fol.24v.
    (36) Guillaume Bigourdan, 'Les premières sociétes scientifiques de Paris au XVIIe siécle', Compte Rendu de l'Académie des Sciences, 164 (1917), 129-133 (p.132). Guillaume Bigourdan, 'Les premières réunions savantes de Paris au XVIIe siécle', Compte Rendu de l'Académie des Sciences, 164 (1917), 159-162 (p.160),  216-220 (p.218). Samuel Sorbière, 'Lettre LXXIX. A Monsieur Hobbes. Réglements de l'Assemblé de Physicians, qui se fit à Paris chez Monsieur de Montmor l'an 1657', Lettres et Discours... (Paris, 1660), 631-636.
    (37) Bertrand, 40. Stroup, Company. 108. Guide, 10.
    (38) The preamble, para.2, was included in the original quotation by Bertrand, 40-41, and later by Mallon 178, but has been omitted by other authors, including Arthur Birembaut, 'Les caractères originaux de l'Académie royale des sciences de 1666 à 1698', Actes du 100e Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes. Paris, 1975 (Section d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine),  (1976), 7-20 (p.17). Doru Todericiu, 'La chimie et les recherches chimiques en France aprés la mort be Colbert (1683-1700)',  C.M.R.17, 53-62 (p.56). Sanders, 254. Stroup, Company, 51-56; 108. Guide, 9.
    (39) Birembaut, 18. Sanderson, 100.
    (40) For background, see Ernst  von Meyer, A History of Chemistry from Earliest Times to the Present Day, 2nd edn, transl. by G.McGowan (London, 1898), pp.21-64. Emile Grillot de Givry, Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy (Paris, 1929), repr.London, 1991), Book III. Carl G.Jung, Collected Works, vols.12, 13 and 14 (especially 13, pp.235-6, Mercurius as the arcane substance). Allen G.Debus, The French Paracelsians. The Chemical Challenge to Medical and Scientific Tradition in Early Modern France (Cambridge University Press, 1991). Mark Haeffner, Dictionary of Alchemy. From Maria Prophetissa to Isaac Newton (London, 1994. See Mercury, pp.142-9).  The alchemy website (www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html).
    (41) Charles Perrault to Colbert, August 1667, Clément, V (1868) 515-6. Charles Perrault, Mémoires, livre I (p.142 in the 1993 ed.).
    (42) Theatrum chymicum,...Tractatus de Chemiæ et Lapidis Philosophici antiquitate...In gratiam Veræ Chemiæ. & medicinæ Chemicæ...   First edition, Strasbourg, 1659; facsimile reprint, Turin, 1981. French edition by Sieur S. (1672-78). For the individual books, see John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, 2 vols (Glasgow, 1906) I, 436-440. The philosopher's stone was also supposed to act as a universal remedy.
    (43) William T.Fernie, Precious Stones: for Curative Wear; and other Remedial Uses; likewise the Nobler Metals (Bristol, 1907). Clément, VII (1873), p.36 (28 septembre 1680) and p.370 (7 octobre 1680).
    (44) Stubbs, 376-386. Doru Todériciu, 'Sur la vraie biographie de Samuel Duclos (Du Clos) Cotreau', Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 38 (1974), 63-67. Sometimes given as Cottereau Du Clos (Samuel).
    (45) Birembaut, 18. Mallon, 180. Oldenburg to Williamson, 31 December 1669, Old.:  VI (1969), 401-3, letter 1355. Louv.: A¹ 749, fol.250, cited by Mallon, 357.
    (46) Appendix 3. Debus, chapters 1 and 4.
    (47) Oldenburg to Saporta, 26 April 1659, Old.: I (1965), 224-9, letter 118.
    (48) Acad. sci. Reg. 1: pp.1-16 (31 December 1666); 4: fols 127v-133v (11 August 1668), 134r-166r (18 August 1668) and 167r-175r (25 August 1668).  Appendix 3.
    (49) 'I am delighted to learn that Paris is making an effort to establish a philosophical assembly, which, eschewing the vanity of words, promises to apply itself to the study and investigation of nature' (Oldenburg to Petit, 2 June 1666, Old.:  III ( 1966), 150-2, letter 536). '...le regne des mots & des termes est passé' (Histoire I, p.2). Fontenelle, Éloge de M.Lemery, Histoire (1715) pp.73-82.
    (50) Duclos' contribution came first on 31 December 1666, followed by Perrault on 22 January 1667 (Acad. sci. Reg.: 1, pp.1-22, 22-30) although that is not apparent from the histories by de Hamel or  Fontenelle where Perrault precedes Duclos (Jean-Baptiste Du Hamel, Regiae Scientiarum Academiae Historia (Paris, 1698), 10-12.  Histoire I, 18-20).
    (51)  This draft is in B.N.F. MS fonds français 1333 with the title page: Dissertations physiques | du Sr.Du Clos | faites en l'an | 1677. || Sur les Principes des Mixtes naturels. | Sur le Sel, en general. | Sur le Sel primitif. | Sur les Sels Temperez.| Sur les Soulphres, en general. || Le tout leu par Messieurs | Blondel | Du Hamel | Perrault | Mariotte. | De Ordre de L'academie. These essays are presumably what Duclos had hoped to publish together in Paris (Appendix 3). They are followed by Remarques sur le Livre des Essays Physiologiques de Mr Boyle faites par le S^r du Clos et leues en l'assembleé, au Moys de Juillet 1668 (cp. Reg.10, fol.28v (3 July 1680). Appendix 3. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal MS 2517, fols 32v, 35r, 59r, 85v and 106r). B.N.F. MS f.fr. 12309, (vi + 511 pages) is an anonymous collection of twenty similar 'Dissertations'.
    (52)  Stroup ( Company, 206) believed that B.N.F. MS f.fr. 1333 includes the referees' verdict on fols 42v-44r. This is not so, judging from the handwriting and the text which suggest that it was a later justification by Duclos.
    All the Dissertations are written in a formal copperplate, presumably by a clerk. A different hand (presumably Duclos') occurs in numerous small corrections to the Dissertations, throughout the whole of the memoir on Boyle, and in a page inserted in Principes (fol.6r: given by Mallon 77).
    More important, this same writing occupies these pages at the end which Stroup believed to be the referee's comments (fols 42v-44r).

Clichés, Bibliothèque national de France, Paris. MS f.fr. 1333. Fols.48r and 42v.

In fact, what these pages say is that, even if the book smacks of Platonism, truth does not perish with the passing of  time. Furthermore, it cannot be criticised by theologians because the same arguments appeared in Kircher's Magneticum Naturae Regnum; sive, Disceptatio... which had been approved by the Inquisition (Duclos was still Protestant in 1677: Appendix 3). It refers on fol.43v to three years discussions of the arguments, suggesting it was written about 1680, the year the book was published.
    (53) Dissertation sur les principes des mixtes naturels. Faite en l'An 1677. Par Le Sr Du Clos, Conseiller & Medicin ordinaire du Roy, & l'un des Physiciens de l'Academie Royale des Sciences. A Amsterdam, Chez Daniel Elsevier, [1680].
    (54) The most complete account is in Stubbs, pp.32-42, who omits the mystical significance of the number 3 (e.g. the 3 'principes', 'le Ternaire principiant [des] Philosophes Hermetiques': p.43).  See Héléne Metzger, Les Doctrines Chimiques en France du Début XVIIe à la Fin du XVIIIe Siécle. Tome I (Paris, 1935), 266-272: 'ce curieux opuscule', p.269. See also Debus, 151. Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science during the First Thirteen Centuries of our Era, 8 vols (New York, 1923-1958), VIII, 389.
    (55) Acad. sci. Reg. 11: fols 168r-169r (6 April 1686).
    (56) Paul Delaunay, La Vie Médicale aux XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe Siécles (Paris, 1935), pp.319-340. Debus,  ch.1-3.  André Tuilier, Histoire de l'Université de Paris et de la Sorbonne, 2 vols (Paris, 1994), I, 45.  II, 44-87.
    (57) Clément, V (1868), 512-3. Histoire I, 6. Charles Perrault, Mémoires, Livre 1 (p.142 in the 1993 edn).
    (58) Du Hamel (1698), 241-6.  Histoire II, 1-15 (for 1686).
    (59) See, for example, Lavisse (1989 ed.), bk.3, chap.1; bk.12, chap.2. Goubert (1966), pp.205-215. For silver at Versailles, see J.-J.Guiffrey, Inventaire général du mobilier de la couronne sous Louis XIV (Paris, 1885), première partie, p.ix. For the diocesan silver, see Lettre du Roy, Écrite à Monseigneur l'Archevèque de Paris...suivi d'une letter circulaire...du 10 février 1690...avec la Gazette de 1690.
    (60) Saunders, Fig.1, 69, 73.
    (61) See, 'Les Eaux de Versailles, dont la beauté...', Fontenelle, Histoire I, 260, for 1678; i.e. five years before Colbert died. Charles Perrault, Mémoires, Livre III (pp.202-7 in the 1993 edn).   Rousset, III: 384-391. Louis A.Barbet, Les Grandes Eaux de Versailles. Installations Mécanqiues et Étangs Artificiels; Description des Fontaines et de Leurs Origines (Paris, 1907). Hubert Loriferne, 'L'influence de Picard dans les travaux d'alimentation en eau du Château de Versailles sous Louis XIV', in Picard, 275-311. Pierre-André Lablaude, Les Jardins de Versailles (Paris, 1998), 40-51.
    (62) Stroup, Company, pp.55-56.
    (63) Maury, 38. Sextus Julius Frontinus (A.D. 40-103). De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae. Despite its antiquity, the book is still regarded as of practical importance.
    (64) Maury, 38. Histoire I, 442. Fontenelle, Éloge de M.Sauveur. Histoire (1716), 79-87. Joseph Sauveur, 'Supputation des avantages du Banquier dans le jeu de la Bassete. Lundy 13 fevrier 1679', Journal des Sçavans. (Amsterdam, 1679), 44-52. Isaac Todhunter, A History of the Mathematical Theory of Probability from the Time of Pascal to that of Laplace (Cambridge, 1865) 22, 46-47.
    (65) Vernon to Oldenburg, from Paris, 15 février 1670. Old: VI (1969), 501-7, letter 1398. C.Huygens, Oeuvres Complètes 20 vols (The Hague, 1888-1950), VII, 12.
    (66) Huygens, vi, 216. Mallon, 92-99. Stroup, Company, indexed at 'Inventions'.  Robin Briggs, 'The Académie royale des sciences and the pursuit of utility',  Past & Present 131 (1991), 8-88.
    (67) Some conception of the scale of Louvois' responsibilities is apparent from his massive correspondence (see Louv., in the General Biblography) and to a lesser extent, from the numerous footnotes in Rousset's biography.
    (68) Clément, V (1868), 182, note 2.
    (69) Corvisier, Louvois, 307-310; 392-397.
    (70) Corvisier, Louvois, 151-152. Richardt, Louvois, 117, 209.
    (71) François M.A. de Voltaire, Siécle de Louis XIV (1752), chap.30. (Cp. chérir, to cherish, and déchirer, to tear apart). Colbert, 1619-1683, 516-7. Lavisse, 702-3.
    (72) Histoire 1699, pp.iii, iv, xi. Reprinted in Histoire du Renouvellement de l'Académie Royale des Sciences en M.DC.XCIX. et les Éloges Historiques...  (Amsterdam, 1709).  Fontenelle goes on to argue that even the 'inutile' can be of value: 'Ainsi les découvertes sensiblement utiles...sont en quelque sorte éclairées par celles qu'on peut traiter d'inutiles'. The upshot is that anything may turn out to be 'utile' in the right context so that all knowledge is potentially, even if not immediately, useful.
    (73) Histoire 1718, pp.76-89.  For the general opinion of Louvois, see Bluche, Dictionnaire, 912-915. Corvisier, Louvois, 9, 486-9; (1996), 7-10. Richardt, Louvois, chap.10.
    (74) Histoire I, 241.
    (75) Meynell, Vivienne, 25.
    (76) For 1664-67, the original folios are in the Départment des manuscrits, B.N.F. (Mélanges de Colbert 311-3, 315). The volumes for 1668-91 are at A.N. O¹ 2129-2174 (two volumes are wrongly catalogued: O¹ 2156 is '1685-II' while 2157 is '1685-I'). See also Henri de Curzon, Répertoire Numérique des Archives de la Maison du Roi (Série O¹) (Bordeaux, 1903. Reprint, Nendeln, 1977). A copybook in the Département des manuscrits, B.N.F. (MS. f.fr. 14108-14110) includes some of the entries considered here (see also Gabriel Peignot, Documents Authentiques et Détails Curieux sur les Dépenses de Louis XIV... (Paris, 1827), art.32, 34, 57, 81, and 90) and other versions are given by Clément, V (1868), 567-584. After Louvois' death, the Academy's accounts were divided between the Comptes and the Trésor royal (See note 6. Gary McCollim (1976) quoted by Saunders, p.31, note 52. Alice Stroup, 'Royal funding of the Parisian Academy royale des sciences during the 1690s', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 77 (1987), pt.4, App.A).
    (77) C.Wolf, Histoire de l'Observatoire de Paris de sa Fondation à 1793 (Paris, 1902), p.14. Stroup, Funding (1987, Table 1) and Company (1990, Tables 2-12).
    (78) Instructions for the format are in Clément,  V (1868), 451-455.
    (79) See, for example, Guéry, 221. Julien Laferrière & M.Waline, Traité Élémentaire de Science et de Législation Financières (Paris, 1952), chap.2.
    (80) Compare CdB 1:589 or 1:1116 with 1:1387.
    (81) See, for example, A.N. O¹ 2771 et seq. Phillipe Lauer, 'Pièces conçernant la Bibliothèque du Roi du XVe au XVIIe siécles', Revue des Bibliothèques 31 (1921), 15-29. CdB 1:xviii-xxi.
    (82) Joseph Schiller, 'Les laboratoires d'anatomie et de botanique à l'Académie des Sciences au XVIIe siécle', Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 16 (1963), pp.97-144; Guy Meynell, 'Surgical teaching at the Jardin des Plantes during the seventeenth century', Gesnerus, 51 (1994), 101-108.
    (83) Charles Perrault, Mémoires (p.234 in the 1993 edn). Stroup, Funding, gives many examples of late payment during the 1690s.
    (84) Stroup, Funding, p.92, has 'Pd. 28.1.1690', which subsequently misled Picolet (Guide, 268).
    (85) Compare CdB 1:365 and Histoire I, p.8.
    (86) After 1629, individual gratifications were not paid by separate warrants but could be grouped together and authorized by a single signature. Payment was to be made in December each year: Rapport du Comité des Pensions à l'Assemblée Nationale. Premier rapport. (Paris, 1790), p.16.
    (87) Presumably a reference to the earlier meeting with Galloys and Blondel on 17 November 1686.
    (88) Claude Perrault, Projet pour la botanique.  Reg.1, pp.30-8 (22 January 1667).   Histoire I, 19-20.
    (89) The philosopher's stone was also held to be a universal remedy in illness.
    (90) Observations sur les Eaux Minérales de Plusieurs Provinces de France, faites en l'Académie Royale des Sciences en l'Année 1670 & 1671 (Amsterdam, 1680). Reprinted in Mémoire IV, 41-120.
    (91) Presumably Giuseppe Francesco Borri.  See Massimo Marra: www.levity.com/alchemy/borri_english.htm. Thorndike, VIII (1958), 242-3, 383-5.
    (92) The clinical use of antimony was highly controversial (Debus, 21-30, 95-9).
    (93) Nicolas Clément had been employed in the royal library since 1670 and lived in no.8 rue Vivienne (CdB 1:459. Meynell, Vivienne, Fig.1d).
    (94) However, a notebook filled with hand-written notes on alchemical experiments and its literature still survives:   'Abregé de | La transmutation projective | des Metaux || Recueil de Mr Duclos | sur la | Transmutation des | Metaux' (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, MS 2517).  It also includes Duclos' comments on Boyle's Essays (see note 47).