Botany and Provincial Enlightenment in Montpellier: Antoine Banal Père and Fils 1750–1800

Abstract

Carnival turns the world upside down to reveal its structure and jokes focus on the stress points in those structures. 1 Eighteenth-century Montpellier, as one of the oldest universities in Europe, had long traditions of student carnival and jokes that could be turned to satirical effect. One of the stock figures of the medical student tradition was the dim surgery student, forever misunderstanding what was going on around him. The published botany lecture notes of a fictional surgeon, Des Esquilles, were a charivari directed at the teaching of botany in the university in 1763. 2 Des Esquilles, in truth the demonstrators Gouan and Cusson, was the straight man who revealed that the professor, Imbert, was the scientific puppet of his employee, the gardener Banal. The joke was that the surgeon was too stupid to tell practical knowledge from science anyway:

The World Flora Online, Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, and the Species Plantarum Programme: Flora of the World: Compatible Concepts or Mutually Exclusive Mandates?

“…Comme dans la majorité des sciences de la nature, qualifiée de « science de plein air » (Callon et al, 2001), où la récolte de données sur de vastes espaces géographiques et de longues périodes de temps est particulièrement importante, la participation citoyenne à la recherche en biodiversité est une source de travail et de compétences non négligeables (Baretto et al, 2003;Bonney et Labranche, 2004;McCaffrey, 2005;Charvolin et al, 2007;Heaton et al, 2011), notamment en botanique, particulièrement sujette à la participation des amateurs (Keeney, 1992;Secord,1994;Livesey, 2005). Il est reconnu que les observateurs suivent les protocoles d'inventaires et que les données qu'ils fournissent respectent les critères de qualité grâce à la force de l'échantillonnage (Couvet et al, 2008;Schmeller et al, 2009;Gregory et van Strien, 2010;Couvet et al, 2011).…”

Reputation in a box. Objects, communication and trust in late 18th-century botanical networks

“…Dense networks existed, for example, in the Languedoc and around port cities, where the exotic flora that arrived from distant lands stimulated an active regional plant trade. 21 But it was Paris that laid claim to the highest botanical and horticultural prowess. Paris, and the surrounding Île de France area, enjoyed an active commercial nursery network thanks to the concentration of wealthy aristocratic consumers with grand gardens to maintain, both within and outwith the boundaries of the city.…”

History and typification of the Pyrenean lily Lilium pyrenaicum Gouan (Liliaceae)

“…It is worth noting that Gouan also made a further expedition to the Pyrenees in 1780, seven years after the publication of his book. In the later expedition, he was accompanied by the younger Antoine Banal, who had been dismissed the previous year for political reasons from his post as the Hortulanus of the Montpellier Jardin du Roi (Livesey, 2005: 62, 69).…”