Les voyageurs comme ressources de l’économie sociale du savoir au xviiie siècle. Les enseignements du registre des visiteurs du cabinet de Jean Hermann

Abstract

The sedentary nature of the Strasbourg naturalist Jean Hermann (1738-1800) made him a cabinet scientist. Although he travelled little, the university professor attracted more than 5,000 people to his natural history cabinet, many of them travellers from all over Europe. The visitors’ register (1762-1800), which is associated with a register of auditors of private lessons in natural history, shows the cabinet as a centre of attraction for the naturalist province in the 18th century. This document is a first-hand source for observing European mobility, particularly the practices associated with the Grand Tour and scholarly travel. It shows that the provincial cabinets were at the heart of the link between travel and natural history, as they were places of scholarly and curious sociability for visitors passing through. In addition to representing an important part of Jean Hermann’s social capital, travellers also provided him with the means to mobilise the resources necessary for the practice of natural history from a distance.