University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Cabinet of Natural History > Chinese natural history objects in 18th-century Paris: reflections on the non-circulation of knowledge

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Googledetails Microsoftdetails

🔐 Log In

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

ℹ️ Information

Chinese natural history objects in 18th-century Paris: reflections on the non-circulation of knowledge

Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Olin Moctezuma .

CANCELLED

During his stay in Macao during the 1720s, the French doctor Jacques-François Vandermonde (?–1746) built up a collection of Chinese minerals with the help of local apothecaries. The collection of 79 mineral samples, recently rediscovered in the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris, was carefully labeled in Chinese, and accompanied by a French translation of the mineral section of Li Shizhen’s Bencao gangmu [Compendium of materia medica]. However, these carefully assembled materials failed to produce a tangible impact once they arrived in Paris, avid as it was of things Chinese. This talk builds around this case study to offer some reflections on the collections of Chinese natural history objects in 18th-century France, the networks undergirding them, and the limitation of their role as medium of knowledge.

Book to attend in person

This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

Mill Lane Lecture Room 3 Geog-biogeo Travel and Expeditions

Other talks

Cambridge RNA Club - ONLINE The Imagined Conflict: On Science and God TBC What’s my reproduction number? Life history strategies: an interdisciplinary perspective Cooperation as a Laboratory of Being Title TBC
 

© 2006-2025 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity