Publication : “Artisanal Enlightenment : Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France”.
BERTUCCI Paola, Artisanal Enlightenment : Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France, New Haven, Yale university press, 2017, 312 p.
Présentation de l’éditeur :
A groundbreaking work that places the mechanical arts and the world of making at the heart of the Enlightenment
What would the Enlightenment look like from the perspective of artistes, the learned artisans with esprit, who presented themselves in contrast to philosophers, savants, and routine-bound craftsmen? Making a radical change of historical protagonists, Paola Bertucci places the mechanical arts and the world of making at the heart of the Enlightenment. At a time of great colonial, commercial, and imperial concerns, artistes planned encyclopedic projects and sought an official role in the administration of the French state. The Société des Arts, which they envisioned as a state institution that would foster France’s colonial and economic expansion, was the most ambitious expression of their collective aspirations.
Artisanal Enlightenment provides the first in-depth study of the Société, and demonstrates its legacy in scientific programs, academies, and the making of Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie. Through insightful analysis of textual, visual, and material sources, Bertucci provides a groundbreaking perspective on the politics of writing on the mechanical arts and the development of key Enlightenment concepts such as improvement, utility, and progress.
Paola Bertucci is associate professor of history at Yale University. She has published extensively on the public culture of science in eighteenth-century Europe, and is the author of prize-winning essays on secrecy, selective visibility, and industrial travel in the Enlightenment.
Plus d’informations sur le site de l’éditeur.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Maxime Georges Métraux (30 septembre 2017). Publication : “Artisanal Enlightenment : Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France”. Groupe de Recherche en Histoire de l'Art Moderne. Consulté le 12 octobre 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/p6jb
