In 1634, French physician Théophraste Renaudot published the first conferences of Paris’s Bureau d’adresse et de rencontre. Established by Renaudot as a forum for popularizing science in Old Regime France, the Bureau held weekly conferences from 1633-1642 [1]. These discussions featured a broad variety of topics including medicine, law, history, and philosophy [2]. Through the conferences, Renaudot intended to allow the general public to participate in the scholarship of the intellectual elites [3]. Unlike the university, which limited a formal education to few, Renaudot opened his conferences to the public giving common people the opportunity to engage in academic discourse in an unprecedented way.
The speakers at the conferences were most likely educated professionals given the sophisticated discussions of law and medicine; however, we cannot be certain. In the published versions of the conferences, the speakers remained anonymous, each denoted as “Speaker One” or “Speaker Two” and so on. Anonymity allowed speakers to express their views without the worry of public embarrassment or harassment, and also reduced the danger of potential backlash from the government or the Church. Renaudot intended for listeners and the public to accept the ideas of speakers based on the merit of their argument, and thus anonymity additionally prevented prior reputations from determining the quality of their words. Renaudot invited both men and women to the conferences, although it is uncertain whether women participated as speakers due to the anonymous nature of the publications.
Renaudot created the Bureau during a moment of cultural transition in France, and it offers a unique opportunity to examine this change through the exchange of ideas. Because the conferences occured during the era of the Scientific Revolution, one might assume that the speakers rejected outdated Aristotelian philosophy and other traditional sources of authority [4]. We might also expect the speakers to view nature as mechanical and regular rather than under the influence of preternatural and supernatural forces. The speakers did express ideas emblematic of the influences of the Scientific Revolution; however, arguments based on classical authorities and Aristotelian philosophy still dominated. Participants often expressed skepticism about supernatural influences in the natural world, nevertheless Christian dogma remained respected and conferences avoided discussions over theology. Due to the variety, number, and contradictory nature of the sources of authority cited by speakers, a consensus was usually never reached and opposing interpretations remained unaddressed [5].
The conferences were published every week from 1634-1641, and Renaudot’s son published the conferences from 1642 in 1655. In order to reach a wider audience, they were printed on inexpensive paper, allowing for distribution similar to news sheets and pamphlets. The conferences were also collected into sets of one hundred and bound in expensive leather volumes. In 1644 and 1655, two folio editions were published in London as the General Collection of the Discourses of the Virtuosi of France [6]. The texts on this website come from those seventeenth-century English translations.
This page was created to help students research Renaudot’s conferences. As an ongoing project from semester to semester, students enrolled in LSU professor Dr. Leslie Tuttle’s Witchcraft and Magic in European History course each choose a conference from the Discourses of the Virtuosi to research and publish on the site. We hope that this resource helps in fellow students’ endeavors to further explain how Europeans understood their world the early phases of the Scientific Revolution.
Further Reading
Solomon, Howard M. Public Welfare, Science, and Propaganda in Seventeenth Century France: The Innovations of Théophraste Renaudot. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Wellman, Kathleen. Making Science Social: The Conferences of Théophraste Renaudot 1633-1642. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
[1] Kathleen Wellman, Making Science Social: The Conferences of Théophraste Renaudot 1633-1642 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), 8.
[2] Wellman, 4.
[3] Howard M. Solomon, Public Welfare, Science, and Propaganda in Seventeenth Century France: The Innovations of Théophraste Renaudot (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972) 63.
[4] Wellman, 7, 17-18.
[5] Wellman, 7.
[6] Solomon, 65-66; Wellman, 5.
[7] Tourette, Georges Gilles de la. La vie et les oeuvres de Théophraste Renaudot, fondateur du journalisme et des consultations charitables. Paris, 1892. Accessed March 25, 2017, 10. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63911803.r=Theophraste%20Renaudot?rk=21459;2.