Thevenot

Name: Melchisedech Thevenot

Achievements: Helped to establish the French Academy of Science

Born: 1620 or 1621; Paris, France

Died: October 29, 1692; Issy-les-Moulineaux, France (Aged 71)

Field & Discipline: Travel; Literature; Writer; Bibliophile

Language: French

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Unknown

Children: Unknown

Education: Unknown

Major Work:

“Relations de divers voyages curieux…” (1663-1672)

Life & Times:

There is very little information on  Thevenot’s early years or personal life. He was an amateur scientist who could read Greek, Latin and Hebrew as well as several oriental languages. After completing his education, he travelled widely and studied the geography and history of the countries he visited.

At the age of twenty-seven he returned to France and entered the diplomatic service of the royal court. He was sent as an envoy to Genoa and in 1652 he was posted to Rome where he remained for the following three years.

In Paris, he attended the informal meetings of a group of learned men who discussed philosophy and nature,  around the mid-1650’s,  at the house of Henri Louis Habert de Montmor. The meetings were attended by leading members of the scientific community including the mathematicians [in group with] Gassendi* and [in group with] Fermat*,  and the philosopher [in group with] Descartes*.

Men of similar interests from outside France such as [in group with] Oldenburg*, who was later involved with the English Royal Society,  the Dutch physicist [in group with] Christiaan Huyghens*, and the English philosopher [in group with] Hobbes*, also came to the meetings. They discussed new astronomical discoveries, mechanical apparatus such as clocks, and matters of natural science such as spontaneous generation.

Thevenot was particularly interested in capillarity and during the course of his experiments he developed a bubble level which he described in a letter to [corresponded with] Viviani*. The level was later improved by Huyghens and by the English scientist [invention improved by] Hooke*.

Thevenot was an advocate of experiment and observation and he communicated to the French scientists the principles of experimentation which he heard about from contacts at the [corresponded with] Accademia del Cimento* in Florence. Around 1658 Thevenot had become a correspondent of Count Magalotti, libriarian and secretary of Prince Leopold of Tuscany and patron of the Accademica del Cimento. Others who met at de Montmor’s were inclined to older methods of inquiry such as disputation and the group became known for its arguments.

Around 1662, partly in reaction to this, Thevenot opened his country home outside Paris for extra meetings where experimentation was encouraged.  There he entertained the Dutch microscopist [supported] Swammerdam* whom he encouraged and introduced to other scientists.

After two or three years, the meetings were abandoned; although Thevenot was a rich man and had a telescope which was used for astronomical observations, there were not enough funds for the scientific apparatus he and his friends needed.

Thevenot was allied with those who wanted to put the emphasis on experimentation and observation, invention, and publication of scientific findings. They had a utilitarian attitude towards science and wanted to use scientific means to improve the life of the nation, and of human beings in general. Their interests were wide and practical, and included travel, exploration of new lands, navigation, commerce, agriculture, mechanics, geometry, physics, chemistry, anatomy and medicine. In the applied arts, they included architecture, fortifications, sculpture, painting, and design. Religion and politics were to be specifically excluded from their academy.

A rival group, led by the writer [rival was] Charles Perrault*, wanted to place science in the sphere of scholarship rather than the mechanical arts, and envisaged an academy that was more philosophical and cultural. The latter group had more influence and when the French Academy of Science was established in 1666, the amateurs such as Thevenot were excluded.

During the 1660’s and ‘70’s, Thevenot translated and published accounts of voyages of discovery and between 1663-1672 he published the four volumes of his “Relations de divers voyages curieux…”

In 1668 he visited the Low Countries. Much of the extensive correspondence he maintained with scientific friends across Europe was concerned with his interest in new geographical discoveries.

In 1684 he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Library. He donated his own large collection of books to the royal library which was considerably smaller than his own. In 1685 Thevenot was at last elected to the Academy of Sciences.

Assessment: Thevenot was an active member of the amateur scientific community and helped to establish the French Academy of Sciences.

Oneliner:  M Thevenot, 17^th-century ‘experimenter’

Bibliography:

• Brown, Harcourt, Scientific Organizations in Seventeenth Century France, The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1934.