Character Catalog

A masterpiece of scientific popularization in which Fontenelle explains the Copernican system through elegant dialogues with a marchioness. The work was enormously successful and was translated throughout Europe.

A rationalist essay inspired by a work by the Dutchman Van Dale, in which Fontenelle dismantles the superstitions surrounding ancient oracles by applying critical method.

A major text in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, in which Fontenelle defends the idea of progress and argues that the Moderns can surpass the Ancients through the accumulation of knowledge.

A series of biographical and scientific notices written by Fontenelle as perpetual secretary of the Académie des sciences. These eulogies form a unique panorama of European science of the era.

An essay in which Fontenelle analyzes the birth of myths and beliefs as products of human ignorance, foreshadowing the anthropology of the Enlightenment.

An ambitious work in which Fontenelle attempts to provide a mathematical foundation for infinitesimal calculus, attesting to his commitment to the exact sciences.

I want to tell you that all of philosophy is founded on just two things: on having a curious mind and poor eyesight; for if your eyes were better than they are, you would easily see whether the stars are suns.

Let us make sure of the fact before troubling ourselves about the cause. It is true that this method is very slow for most people, who naturally run to the cause and skip over the truth of the fact.

The whole question of the pre-eminence between the Ancients and the Moderns, once properly understood, comes down to knowing whether the trees that once grew in our countryside were larger than those of today.

Newton left behind a great legacy of glory, and on this subject a kind of dispute arose between the English and the Germans, not unlike the one in which seven cities of Greece competed over the birthplace of Homer.

Fontenelle's birthplace, where he grew up in the circle of his uncle Pierre Corneille and received his early education from the Jesuits.

Institution where Fontenelle served as perpetual secretary for 42 years, writing eulogies of scholars and reports on scientific discoveries.

Social venues where Fontenelle shone through his wit and disseminated scientific ideas to a cultivated audience, most notably the salon of Madame de Lambert.

Seat of the Académie française, where Fontenelle was elected in 1691, and the meeting place of its academicians.

Neighbourhood where Fontenelle resided for much of his Parisian life, in close proximity to academic institutions and salons.

Sky observation instrument that Fontenelle evokes in his Conversations to explain the plurality of worlds to the general public.

Fontenelle's everyday writing tools, with which he composed hundreds of academic eulogies and popular science works.

Scholar's cabinet object representing the constellations, a symbol of Fontenelle's passion for astronomy and cosmology.

Official volumes in which Fontenelle recorded the work and discoveries of scholars in his role as perpetual secretary.

Small elegant object widely used in 18th-century salons, which Fontenelle, a man of the world, readily carried with him.

Accessory of Parisian social life, used in the salons that Fontenelle frequented assiduously.