John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, December 2, 2024

Scientific Wonders from Versailles

Clock of the Creation of the World, 1754

From The Art Newspaper:

Versailles: Science and Splendour at London’s Science Museum aims to highlight the French royal palace’s position as the crucible for scientific and intellectual innovation in the 17th and 18th centuries, under the patronage of Louis XIV and XV.
The exhibition—a reworked version of a 2010 show at Versailles—is designed to illuminate a momentous “scientific shift”, says the associate curator Matthew Howles. “In this period you see an increasing emphasis on the importance of observation; experiments that can be repeated to demonstrate their accuracy and reliability; and the development of more precise instruments to measure those scientific discoveries.”
Much of this activity appears to have been a result of royal prestige and enthusiasms. The palace contained Louis XIV’s menagerie of exotic animals, the first modern-style zoo, which became a centre for zoological study. The Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris has loaned the remains of one of its most celebrated inmates, an Indian rhinoceros given to Louis XV in 1770 by the French governor of Chandannagar in West Bengal.
Another technical innovation was the Marly machine, a pumping system built to supply Louis XIV’s elaborate fountains with water from the Seine river.
“There’s a two-fold phenomenon going on,” Howles says. “You’ve got these things like the menagerie and the fountains that are in themselves demonstrations of the monarchy’s power and prestige, but at the same time it gives scientists this great resource. With the menagerie, scientists from the academy could study these creatures while they were alive and dissect them after they’re dead and end up with much more detailed studies of animal anatomy.” (Read more.)