Scholarly Societies Project

Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux

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Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux =
National Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts of Bordeaux
Founding of the Society
Year
Authority / Notes
1712
According to p.619 of v.1 of Bibliographie Générale des Travaux Historiques et Archéologiques publ. par les Sociétés Savantes de la France, this Academy was founded on 1712, September 5 by letters patent, suppressed in 1793, and reconstituted in 1800 under the name of Société d'Agriculture; it took its former name in 1816. [It should be noted that the original 1712 name is not specified in this source.]

Bibliographie Générale des Travaux Historiques et Archéologiques publ. par les Sociétés Savantes de la France, v.1, p.619 goes on to indicate that the Academy published no collection of its proceedings before the Revolution, but there were a certain number of dissertations awarded a prize by the Academy or read at its sessions that were printed individually, some in a duodecimo format, others in a quarto format. The Bibliotheque publique de Bordeaux arbitrarily formed from these individual papers two collections: one in 6 volumes, the other in 3 volumes.

The Société d'Agriculture published no volumes, but their Procès-verbaux were inserted in the Bulletin Philomathique du Muséum de Bordeaux.


Bibliographical Notes on the Pre-Revolutionary Dissertations of the Bordeaux Academy

It is worthwhile seeing how these collections are recorded in various library catalogues. The record in the Bibliot. Nat. France cat. gives the title as Recueil des dissertations qui ont remporté le prix à l'Académie Royale des Belles-lettres, Sciences et Arts de Bordeaux, with an imprint of Bordeaux : Impr. de P. Brun, 1715-1739 (T. 1-t. 5) and a note that it is in duodecimo format. The record in the GBV German Union cat. gives the title as Recueil des dissertations qui ont remporté le prix à l'Académie Royale des Belles-lettres, Sciences & Arts de Bordeaux, with an imprint of Bordeaux : Brun, 1715-1739 (1.1715/19 - 4.1732/33[?]; 1738/39), with no indication of whether the dissertations were in duodecimo or quarto format.

One record in the Cat. Collectif France gives the title as Recueil des dissertations de ceux qui ont remporté le prix à l'Académie royale des belleslettres, sciences et arts de Bordeaux, with an imprint of 1715-1738, Bordeaux, P. Brun 6 vol.. Another record in the Cat. Collectif France gives the title as Recueil des dissertations qui ont remporté le prix à l'Académie royale des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de Bordeaux, with an imprint of 1715-1737, Bordeaux, Brun 4 vol. in duodecimo. There are also records in the Cat. Collectif France for individual dissertations with imprint dates from 1751 to 1758 in Quarto format. One is a 1751 dissertation by Boissier de Sauvages, François (1706-1767) entitled Dissertation sur les médicaments qui affectent certaines parties du corps humain plutôt que d'autres et quelle serait la cause de cet effet, which is in quarto format. Another is a 1758 dissertation by Limbourg, Robert de entitled Dissertation qui a remporté le prix en 1757, au jugement de l'AcadÉmie royale des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de Bordeaux, sur la question proposée par cette Académie : Quelle est l'influence de l'air sur les végétaux?, which is also in quarto format.

The record in the Harvard Univ. cat. gives the title as Recüeil des dissertations qui ont remporti le prix à l'Académie royale des belles lettres, sciences & arts de Bordeaux ..., with an imprint of [Bordeaux, ca.1740?] 6 v.. There is a note that reads: "A reissue of the sheets of essays published separately 1715-39 (except the 1st essay, which is a reprint)..." There is also a record in the Harvard Univ. cat. for a 1738 dissertation in duodecimo format by Cavallery, Antoine, 1698-1765 entitled Dissertation sur la cause de la diaphanéité et de l'opacité des corps, which is said to be in v. 6, [ca. 1740?] of the Recüeil des dissertations qui ont remporté le prix . In addition, there is a record in the Harvard Univ. cat. for a 1742 dissertation in quarto format by Desaguliers, J. T. (John Theophilus), 1683-1744 entitled Dissertation sur l'electricité des corps.

To conclude, a collection of dissertations appears in various library catalogues dated 1715-1737, 1715-1738 and 1715-1739, and given under the title Recueil des dissertations qui ont remporté le prix à l'Académie royale des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de Bordeaux (with only minor title variants) in 4, 5, and 6 volumes; the format for most, if not all, of these library copies was duodecimo. As mentioned above, Bibliographie Générale des Travaux Historiques et Archéologiques publ. par les Sociétés Savantes de la France, v.1, p.619 indicates that the Bibliotheque publique de Bordeaux arbitrarily formed from these individual papers two collections: one in 6 volumes, the other in 3 volumes. It is possible that other libraries bound their own copies, not necessarily following a common plan of assigning dissertations to particular volumes; this might explain the variance in numbers of volumes for the duodeimo collections.

We now need to consider the dissertations in quarto format. Harvard Univ. cat., lists one individual 1742 dissertation, which was in quarto format, and the Cat. Collectif France lists dissertations from 1751 and 1758, both in quarto format as well. In addition, using the abbreviation Prix de l'acad. de Bord., Pogg, v.1, col.146 cites two articles by Laurent Beraud in 1747 & 1748; the corresponding entries in Reuss, v.3, p.79 and v.4, p.347 identify both of these articles as being in T. 2 (4to.) of the Prix de l'acad. de Bord. So it appears that there were indeed individual dissertations issued between 1742 and 1758 in quarto format. We have not yet discovered a library catalogue that lists a bound collection of the quarto-format dissertations.

Seat of the Society
City
Authority / Notes
Bordeaux
France
This location is supported by the name of the Academy.
Name of the Society
Dates
Name
Authority
1715 - 1749 Académie Royale des Belles-lettres, Sciences et Arts de Bordeaux Its publications.
1800 - 1816 Société d'Agriculture Bibliographie Générale des Travaux Historiques et Archéologiques publ. par les Sociétés Savantes de la France, v.1, p.619.
1820 - 1847 Académie Royale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux Its publications.
1848 - 1853 Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux Its publications.
1854 - 1870 Académie Impériale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux Its publications.
1871 - Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux Its publications.
No website found, as of 2005, April 22.
Journals of the Society
Years
Full Journal Title
Abbrev.
Indexed
1715 - 1739
(T.1 - t.5)
 
A
Recueil des Dissertations qui ont remporté le Prix à l'Académie Royale des Belles-lettres, Sciences et Arts de Bordeaux
The record in the Bibliot. Nat. France cat. gives the numbering as 1715-1739 (T. 1-t. 5), and indicates that this was a duodecimo edition.
There is sufficient variance between the records for this collection in various library catalogues to suggest that different libraries created these volumes by gathering together individual dissertations in an arbitrary fashion. For a discussion of this bilbiographic puzzle see Bibliographical Notes on the Pre-Revolutionary Dissertations of the Bordeaux Academy.
[Bibliot. Nat. France cat.]
Prix de l'acad. de Bord.
[Pogg, v.1, col.146 cites two articles by Laurent Beraud in 1747 & 1748; the corresponding entries in Reuss, v.3, p.79 and v.4, p.347 identify both of these articles as being in T. 2 (4to.).]
Prix de l'acad. de Bordeaux
[Pogg, v.1, col.29 cites T. II.]
Prix de l'Acad. de Bordeaux
[Reuss, v.4, p.159 cites 8vo. T. I (a 1715 article by Mairan, which is identified in Harvard Univ. cat. as duodecimo, not octavo); v.10, p.64 cites (in 8vo) T.5 (a 1737 article by Alexander Stuart, which is identified in Harvard Univ. cat. as duodecimo, not octavo);
v.3, p.79 cites T. 2. (4to.); v.4, p.5 cites T. 2. (4to.); v.4, p.347 cites 4to. T. 2; v.4, p.371 cites 4to. T. 2; v.10, p.178 cites (in 4to.) T.3.]
Prix de l'Acad. des Bordeaux
[Reuss, v.4, p.133 cites 8vo. T. 3 (a 1730 article by Nicolas Sarrabat, which is identified in Harvard Univ. cat. as duodecimo, not octavo).]
Pogg
Reuss
1820 - 1837
 
B
Séance Publique / Académie Royale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1820 to 1837 is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
Continued by C
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux, Acad. Sci. Séances Publ.
[RSLC, v.1, p.xxii]
RSLC
1839 - 1847
(1. - 9.)
 
C
Actes de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1839 (1e année / 1e trimest.) to 1847 (9e année) is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
Continues B. Continued by D
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux, Actes Acad. Sci.
[RSLC, v.1, p.xxii]
RSLC
1848 - 1853
(10. - 15.)  
D
Recueil des Actes de l'Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1848 (10e année) to 1853 (15e année) is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
The record in the GBV German Union cat. gives the title for the entire period from 10.1848 - 21.1859 as: Recueil des actes de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux. The actual full-text at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique, however, makes it clear that the title from 1848 (10e année) to 1853 (15e année) was in fact Recueil des Actes de l'Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux.
Continues C. Continued by E
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux, Actes Acad. Sci.
[RSLC, v.1, p.xxii]
RSLC
1854 - 1859
(16. - 21.)
 
E
Recueil des Actes de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1854 (16e année) to 1859 (21e année) is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
Continues D. Continued by F
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux, Actes Acad. Sci.
[RSLC, v.1, p.xxii]
RSLC
1860 - 1870
(3e sér., 22. - 32.)
 
F
Actes de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1860 (3e sér. / 22e année) to 1870 (32e année) is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
From 22.1860 - 32.1870, it had a parallel title: Recueil des Actes de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux.
Continues E. Continued by G
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux, Actes Acad. Sci.
[RSLC, v.1, p.xxii]
RSLC
1871/72 -
(33. - )
 
G
Actes de l'Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
[Full-text of 1871/1872 (3e sér. / 33e année) to 1921 (1920-1921; 4e sér., t. IV), and from 1928 (1925-1926-1927; 4e sér., t. VI) to 1930 (1928-1929; 4e sér., t. VII) is available at Gallica: la bibliothèque numerique.]
From 33.1871/72 - 10.1934/36 it had the parallel title: Recueil des Actes de l'Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux.
Continues F.
[GBV German Union cat.]
Bordeaux Ac. Act.
[RSLC, v.13, p.xxi]
Bordeaux, Acad. Actes
[RSLC, v.9, p.xi]
RSLC

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