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.
