FONTENELLE’S ÉLOGES DES ACADÉMICIENS: CREATING THE SCIENTIFIC PERSONA

In his Éloges des académiciens, French philosopher Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657 – 1757) used various strategies to build the credibility of scientists. In recent publications on the history of science, the concept of persona has been fruitfully explored. In this article, I focus on the construction of the scientific persona in Fontenelle’s Éloges, concentrating on the communication skills that scientists had to develop in order to advance new scientific discoveries. In what ways did Fontenelle rely on traditional rhetorical strategies to formulate and present a new scientific persona? How did the strategy of his Éloges relate to the notion of sociabilité and the social context of the Académie des sciences?