fjt_01388 - FRENCH ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Académie royale des Sciences 1716

FRENCH ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The Academy of Sciences owes its origin to the interest shown by Louis XIV in a small group of scholars (grouped at the Observatory) of which he became the unofficial godfather.. In 1666, Colbert officially endowed the now "royal" Academy with an organization. It is naturally invited to devote itself to the development of the sciences, and, above all, to advise the authorities in this field.. Scholars are chosen (astronomers, mathematicians, physicists, anatomists, botanists, zoologists and chemists), who hold their first meeting on December 22, 1666 in the King's library in Paris.. On January 20, 1699, Louis XIV gave the Royal Academy of Sciences its first regulations and placed it under his protection.. Among the most famous elected officials, we will remember the names of Lavoisier (who had two sections established in 1785: one for the exact sciences and the other for the natural sciences) and Bossuet. Reading tips: SAOMON-BAYET C. , "The institution of science and the experience of life: method and experience at the Royal Academy of Sciences (1666-1793)", Paris, 1978; DHOMBRES, J. and N. , "Birth of a power: science and scholars in France (1793-1824)", Paris, 1989.