A learned artisan debates the system of the world: Le Clerc versus Mallemant de Messange

Abstract

Sébastien Le Clerc (1637-1714) was the most renowned engraver of Louis XIV's France. For the history of scientific publishing, however, Le Clerc represents a telling paradox. Even though he followed a traditional route based on classic artisanal training, he also published extensively on scientific topics such as cosmology and mathematics. While contemporary scholarship usually stresses the importance of artisanal writing as a direct expression of artisanal experience and know-how, Le Clerc's publications, and specifically the work on cosmology in his Système du monde (1706-1708), go far beyond this. By reconstructing the debate between Le Clerc and the professor Mallemant de Messange on the authorship of this 'system of the world', this article argues that Le Clerc's involvement in publishing ventures shaped his identity both as an artisan and as a scientific author. Whereas the Scientific Revolution supposedly heralded a change from the world of 'more or less' to the 'world of precision', this article shows how an artisan could be more 'precise' than the learned scholar whose claims he disputed, and points to the importance of the literary field as a useful lens for observing the careers of early modern scientific practitioners.

George Gabb and ‘Le Cabinet de M. Le Clerc’: Art, Science, and the Visual Production of Knowledge

“…46 The Discours had been his second published work intended to show his wish to participate in scientific discussions. 47 Yet, his artworks themselves also performed this role, as Anita Guerrini has argued for his natural history engravings. 48 Préaud has argued that the two engravings -of the Académies and the Cabinet -should be seen as a pair.…”