Lumières alpines et sciences de la montagne: le cas du Mont-Blanc, 1740-1820

Abstract

This article analyses the role of local scholars, amateurs and folks in the fabric of natural history and physical knowledge about the Mont Blanc massif in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Besides the interests of the Sardinian and French states for cartography and mineral resources, various cultural factors increased the curiosity of foreign travellers and of a few scholars living in Geneva, Turin, Lausanne or Chambéry for a better knowledge of the Alps of Savoy. Under their influence and through their initiatives, local amateurs, provincial notables, guides and hunters were in turn mobilised to collect specimens and to provide descriptions, illustrations and further data about the massif. The contribution of each group of actors to the development of a scientific approach initially depended on their social status, geographic location and cultural level. But as time went on, the growing interactions between foreign naturalists or physicists and indigenous populations, helped by the mediation of local amateurs and a few artists, reduced the gap between Enlightenment scholarship, travel literature and popular beliefs.