Taking Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758-1836) as a primary case study, this dissertation examines note-taking practices and information management during the long eighteenth-century (1770-1830 circa). Known as the wife and scientific associate of the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), and more notably, as a translator and illustrator of chemical texts on her own right, Paulze-Lavoisier is here presented as a secretaire and namely as someone whose main charge was to store and exchange information by means of writing. I focus, in particular, on the so-called Registres de laboratoire: 14 notebooks containing the accounts of numerous experiments performed by Lavoisier and his associates in Paris between 1772 and 1788 and annotated thoroughly by Paulze-Lavoisier. In contrast to previous historiography, I reassess the meaning of the Registres in the light of the practices by which they were compiled, consulted, and preserved. By tracing Paulze-Lavoisier’s interventions and exploring the material and social conditions in which they were made, I show the role of scribal practices in Lavoisier’s working routine and, at the same time, I retrace her trajectories as a secrétaire. In the last part of the dissertation, I explore the fate of the Registres after Lavoisier’s death in 1794, when Paulze-Lavoisier’s work as a secrétaire took new directions. The broader aim of the thesis is to raise new questions relating to the relationships between note-taking practices, gender, and sociability as well as to the social construction of scientific authority, and the social visibility of scribal helpers and assistants before and after the French Revolution.
Scrittura, sociabilità e strategie di persuasione: Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier, secrétaire (1758-1836)
2021
Abstract
Taking Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758-1836) as a primary case study, this dissertation examines note-taking practices and information management during the long eighteenth-century (1770-1830 circa). Known as the wife and scientific associate of the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), and more notably, as a translator and illustrator of chemical texts on her own right, Paulze-Lavoisier is here presented as a secretaire and namely as someone whose main charge was to store and exchange information by means of writing. I focus, in particular, on the so-called Registres de laboratoire: 14 notebooks containing the accounts of numerous experiments performed by Lavoisier and his associates in Paris between 1772 and 1788 and annotated thoroughly by Paulze-Lavoisier. In contrast to previous historiography, I reassess the meaning of the Registres in the light of the practices by which they were compiled, consulted, and preserved. By tracing Paulze-Lavoisier’s interventions and exploring the material and social conditions in which they were made, I show the role of scribal practices in Lavoisier’s working routine and, at the same time, I retrace her trajectories as a secrétaire. In the last part of the dissertation, I explore the fate of the Registres after Lavoisier’s death in 1794, when Paulze-Lavoisier’s work as a secrétaire took new directions. The broader aim of the thesis is to raise new questions relating to the relationships between note-taking practices, gender, and sociability as well as to the social construction of scientific authority, and the social visibility of scribal helpers and assistants before and after the French Revolution.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Antonelli_tesi_Paulze-Lavoisier_2020_def.pdf
Open Access dal 18/11/2022
Tipologia:
Altro materiale allegato
Dimensione
30.01 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
30.01 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in UNITESI sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14242/127044
URN:NBN:IT:UNIBO-127044