The Spectacle de la Nature in Eighteenth-Century Spain: From French Households to Spanish Workshops

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The Spectacle de la Nature inEighteenth-Century Spain: FromFrench Households to SpanishWorkshopsElena Serrano aa CEHIC, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, SpainVersion of record first published: 28 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Elena Serrano (2012): The Spectacle de la Nature in Eighteenth-Century Spain:From French Households to Spanish Workshops, Annals of Science, 69:2, 257-282

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The Spectacle de la Nature in Eighteenth-Century Spain: From FrenchHouseholds to Spanish Workshops

ELENA SERRANO

CEHIC, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain.

Email: [email protected]

Summary

This paper analyzes the Spanish appropriation of one of the great Frencheighteenth-century best-sellers, the Spectacle de la Nature (1732--1750) by the abbeAntoine Noel Pluche. In eight volumes, the abbe discussed current issues innatural philosophy, such as Newtonianism, the origin of fossils, artisantechniques, natural history, machines, gardening or insect-collection in a polite-conversation format. It was translated into English (1735), Dutch (1737), Italian(1737), German (1746) and Spanish (1753). But the four Spanish editions werevery different from their European counterparts. In Spain, it was delivered in 16carefully printed and extensively commented volumes. In Pluche’s original, therewas a concern for the young gentleman’s education, new pedagogical methods andan enthusiastic defence of experimental knowledge. However, Le Spectacle inSpain was conceived as a useful tool for modernizing the country, it servedpolitical and propagandist goals, defended Spanish culture and science (inparticular with respect to American flora, fauna and geography) and the Jesuitcontribution to science and aimed to harmonize experimental knowledge andscholastic tradition. The analysis of the more than 1500 footnotes, prefaces, somereaders’ comments and other questions related to the format gives insight on howit was appropriated.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2582. Pluche’s book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

2.1 A pedagogical writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

2.2 Mundane science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

2.3 Celestial science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

2.4 The role of arts et metiers in experimental knowledge . . . . . . . . . . 266

3. Terreros’ Espectaculo de la Naturaleza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

3.1 A curious father in Madrid’s polite society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

3.2 A luxury and fully-annotated edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2743.3 The Spanish contribution to science and the defence of Spain. . . . . 277

4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

ANNALS OF SCIENCE,

Vol. 69, No. 2, April 2012, 257�282

Annals of Science ISSN 0003-3790 print/ISSN 1464-505X online # 2012 Taylor & Francishttp://www.tandfonline.com

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2011.609072

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http://www.tandfonline.com

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2011.609072

1. Introduction

In 1748, a Jesuit professor of mathematics, Esteban de Terreros (1707–1782), set

up a network of hundreds of informants all over Spain from his cell in Madrid.1

Artisans and learned people were commissioned to find out the local names of all

manufactured products and techniques, ‘the occult treasure that craftsmen have

among them without even being noticed’. Terreros himself travelled with a portable

ink pot and dozens of sketches of machines through the workshops of Madrid,

Toledo, Talavera, Segovia and Guadalajara and he was jokingly known as ‘the

questioning father, the curious father’.2

Terreros was determined to accurately translate the eight volumes of the French

Spectacle de la Nature (1732–1750) by Antoine Noel Pluche, the abbe Pluche, one of

the European best-sellers of the Enlightenment that had already been translated into

English (1735), Italian (1737), Dutch (1737), and German (1746).3 As soon as he

began his translation, he realized that there were no dictionaries or specific treatises

that would help him to translate the thousands of natural specimens, manufactured

products and machines that were described in the Spectacle.4 The Spectacle included

natural history, physics, astronomy, botany, gardening, bell-construction, silk looms,

cider manufacture, and shipyards among countless other things. It also gathered an

impressive amount of visual information. Presses, ploughs, looms, mechanical levers,

ships and vegetable and insect micro-structures were carefully depicted (see Figures

1�5). Only after incessant correspondence and inquires could Terreros finally publish

a fully annotated translation in 1753–1755. As a by-product of the translation, he

also produced the first Spanish dictionary of the arts and sciences, with many

references to the Espectaculo for further information.5

1 Terreros himself said that he had consulted more than 500 artisans. Noel-Antoine Pluche, Espectaculode la naturaleza, o conversaciones acerca de las particularidades de la historia natural [. . .] trad. del frances.por el P. Estevan de Terreros y Pando, 16 vols (Madrid, 1753–1755), preface: ‘I had to go from art to art andfrom learned man to learned man to find out for my own eyes, recording the arts and watching theoperations and handling the instruments, in order to be able to write from practical knowledge’.(Translations from Spanish to English were provided by Unitat d’Assessorament Linguıstic i Traduccions,Servei de Llengues, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, UALT/SL (UAB), if no other is specified). I willrefer to Terreros’s translation of Pluche Spectacle as Terreros (note 1).

2 Esteban de Terreros, Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes en lastres lenguas, francesa, latina e italiana. Su autor el P. Esteban de Terreros y Pando, 4 vols (Madrid, 1786–1793). Terreros explained his working method in the volume 1. Terreros also quoted some of his sources inthe dictionary entries. See: Manuel Alvar, ‘Presentacion’, in Diccionario Castellano con las Voces de lasCiencias y las Artes (Madrid, 1987); Dolores Azorın and Isabel Santamarıa, ‘El Espectaculo de la Natu-raleza traducido por Terreros y Pando como fuente de su Diccionario Castellano con las voces de ciencias yartes’, in Actas del Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Espanola, edited by Jose Bustos andJose Luis Giron (Madrid, 2006), 1253–1268, 1256–1257; Marıa Arribas, ‘El diccionario como puente entrelas lenguas y culturas del mundo’, in Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Lexicografıa Hispanica(Alicante, 2006), 53–59; Josefa Gomez, ‘Notas sobre la traduccion cientıfica y tecnica en el siglo XVIII’, inHistoria de la traduccion, edited by Brigitte Lepinette and Antonio Melero Bellido (Valencia, 2003); PedroAlvarez de Miranda, ‘Entorno al diccionario de Terreros’, Bulletin Hispanique, 94 (1992), 559�572.

3 The Spectacle was present in 500 private library catalogues printed between 1750 and 1780 and it wasranked the fourth best-seller between 1750–1780, only surpassed by Bayle’s Dictionary, Marot’s Ouvres andBuffon’s Histoire naturelle. Data from Daniel Mornet, ‘Les enseignements des bibliotheques privees (1750–1780)’, in Revue d’Histoire Litteraire de France, 18 (1910), 449�496.

4 Terreros (note 1), preface: ‘[. . .] I armed myself with Dictionaries, be they of Arts, of Sciences, ofuniversities and I obtained facultative books as required by the variety of subjects it dealt with. Who wouldhave said that being so well armed I wouldn’t have been able to go forward?’; ‘I asked all day in theOrchard, in the Field, in the Flourmill, in the Shops, in Houses and in the streets.’

5 Terreros (note 2). The four volumes of the dictionary were published in 1786, 1787, 1788 and 1793.The latter was a four language dictionary: Spanish, Latin, French and Italian.

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This paper explores the Spanish appropriation of the French Spectacle. It

analyzes Terreros’ preface and other texts, the different editions, the engravings and

some comments of readers. But above all, it pays particular attention to Terreros’

footnotes. The sixteen luxury volumes (twice that of the European editions)

contained more than 1500 footnotes, where he profusely commented, explained,

discussed, argued, added and contradicted many of Pluche’s statements.

The case study I present seems interesting for two reasons. First, because the

Spectacle was instrumental in the popularization of natural philosophy in Spain. By

the middle of the century, the Spectacle was one of the few scientific works that had

been successfully translated into Spanish. Certainly, there had been a reformist

movement both in sciences and philosophy earlier in the century, periodicals offered

extracts of European publications and an enthusiastic (but not large) section of polite

society publicly declared a strong interest in the natural sciences.6 However, the fact is

that up until the middle of the century, only a few scientific works had been

translated or produced in Spain and they by no means enjoyed as wide a distribution

as that of Terreros’ translation of Pluche’s Spectacle.7 In fact, much of the European

enlightened literature was not translated until the 1780s, when the translation rate

multiplied by four.8

The Spanish Spectacle was a success. There were four editions (1753–55, 1757–58,

1771–73 and 1786–1793), it was praised by the most influential Spanish writer, Benito

6 Spary (1999) refers to a ‘large and enthusiastic section of polite French society from 1740�1790’. SeeEmma Spary, ‘The Nature of Enlightenment’, in The sciences in Enlightened Europe, edited by WilliamClarke, Jan Golinsky and Simon Shaffer (Chicago-London, 1999), 272�304, 273. On Spanish audiences,see: Juan Pimentel, Testigos del mundo. Ciencias, literatura y viajes en la ilustracion (Madrid, 2003); An-tonio Lafuente, Juan Pimentel, ‘La construccion de un espacio publico para la ciencia’, in Historia de laCiencia y la Tecnica en la Corona de Castilla, edited by Luıs Garcıa Ballester, 4 vols (Valladolid, 2002), IV,113�155; Nuria Valverde, Actos de precision. Instrumentos cientıficos, opinion publica y economıa moral enla ilustracion espanola (Madrid, 2007). On the first years of the century, the classical reference is OlgaQuiroz-Martinez, La introduccion de la filosofıa moderna en Espana: el eclecticismo espanol de los siglosXVII y XVIII (Mexico, 1949). There is a good summary in Antonio Mestre, Mayans y la Espana de laIlustracion (Madrid, 1990). On eighteenth-century Spanish literature and press the bibliography is innu-merable. The most useful for me were: Francisco Sanchez-Blanco, Europa y el pensamiento espanol del sigloXVIII (Madrid, 1991); Francoise Lopez, ‘Aspectos especıficos de la Ilustracion espanola’, in II Simposiosobre el Padre Feijoo y su Siglo: ponencias y comunicaciones, 2 vols (Oviedo, 1981�1983), I, 23�29; NigelGlendinning, Historia de la Literatura espanola: el siglo XVIII (Barcelona, 1983); Francisco Aguilar Pinal,La Espana del absolutismo ilustrado (Madrid, 2005); idem, La prensa espanola en siglo XVIII. Diarios,Revistas y Pronosticos (Madrid, 1978); Joaquın Alvarez Barrientos, La Republica de las Letras en la Espanadel siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1995); Vıctor Infantes, Francois Lopez and Jean-Francois Otrel (ed.), Historia dela edicion y de la lectura en Espana: 1472�1914 (Madrid, 2003). Antonio Lafuente et al: ‘Literatura cien-tıfica moderna’, in Historia literaria de Espana en el siglo XVIII edited by Francisco Aguilar Pinal (Ma-drid, 1996), 965�1028.

7 The very few exceptions have been quoted by Antoni Malet, ‘Newton in Spain and Portugal’, in TheReception of Isaac Newton in the Europe, 3 vols, edited by S. Mandelbrote and H. Pulte (Forthcoming,2011), I, chapter 11. These are: Jean-Antoine Nollet, Lecciones de Physica experimental, 6 vols (Madrid,1755); Luıs Antonio Verney, Verdadero Metodo de Estudiar (Madrid, 1757); Charles Rollin, Modo deensenar y estudiar las bellas letras, 4 vols (Madrid, 1755) and Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, RelacionHistorica del viaje a la America Meridional, 5 vols (Madrid, 1748). Specific treatises of different issues werealso available. For example, on astronomy: Carles Lemaur, Discurso sobre la Astronomıa (Madrid, 1762),architecture: Christian Rieger, Elementos de toda Arquitectura, (Madrid, 1763) or agriculture by Duhameldu Monceau. Buffon, Linnaeus, Fontanelle and Euler to quote just a few were translated during the lastthird of the century.

8 Francoise Etienvre, Traduccion y Renovacion Cultural a mediados del siglo XVIII en Espana’, inFenix de Espana: modernidad y cultura propia en la Espana del siglo XVIII (1737–1766): actas del congresointernacional celebrado en Madrid, noviembre de 2004, edited by Pablo Fernandez Albaladejo (Madrid,2006); Francisco Lafarga and Luis Pegenaute (ed.), Historia de la traduccion en Espana (Salamanca, 2004);Idem, La traducccion en Espana: 1750–1830: lengua, literatura, cultura (Lleida, 1999).

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Feijoo (1676–1764) and it was considered a hall-mark in Spanish literature (more

below).9

But the Spectacle not only conveyed textual information. The arts and metiers

engravings were forerunners of Diderot’s Encyclopedie and gave accurate information

on technical issues (Figure 1).10 The natural history engravings connected the

Spanish public with the classical works of Conrad Gesner (1516–1565), Robert

Hooke (1635–1702), Francis Willughby (1635–1672) and John Ray (1627–1705) and

many others (more below).11 Along with factual information, Terreros also translated

values and attitudes in the practice of experimental philosophy for the Spanish

public. The Spectacle is a book in the tradition of natural theology, i.e. it aimed to

Figure 1. Loom. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

9 Benito J. Feijoo, Cartas Eruditas y Curiosas, 5 vols (Madrid, 1742�1760), V, carta 23, 367–391; JuanSempere y Guarinos, Reflexiones sobre el Buen Gusto en las ciencias y en las artes. Traduccion libre de lasque escribio en italiano Luis Antonio Muratori, con un Discurso sobre el gusto actual de los espanoles en laliteratura (Madrid, 1782), 279.

10 The first volumes of the Panckoucke’s Encyclopedie methodique in Spain appeared in 1788. ClorindaDonato, ‘La Enciclopedia metodica: Transfer and transformation of knowledge about Spain and the NewWorld in the Spanish translation of the Encyclopedie methodique’, in Das Europa der Aufklarung und dieaußereuropaische koloniale Welt, edited by Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink (Gottingen, 2006), 74�112; Jose ChecaBeltran, ‘Mınguez de San Fernando y su traduccion de la Encyclopedie Methodique’, in La traduccion enEspana (1750–1830). Lengua, literatura, cultura, edited by Francisco Lafarga (Lleida, 1999), 177�186.

11 For example, Filippo Buonani (1638–1725), Johannes Jonston (1603–1675), Ferdinando Marsigli(1658–1730) or Claude Perrault (1613–1688). For an extensive description of the engravings, see MadeleinePinault-Sørensen, ‘Les planches du Spectacle de la nature de l’abbe Pluche’, in Ecrire la nature au XVIIIesiecle; autour de l’abbe Pluche, edited by Francoise Gevrey, Julie Boch and Jean-Louis Haquette (Paris,2006), 441�59.

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induce piety and religious fervour in its readers by looking at the wonders of nature.

But it is also a book on self-improvement, polite conversation, collecting and learning

practices. It taught mundane attitudes, taste and moral values. As Emma Spary has

argued, natural history between the 1740s and 1780s was indissolubly interwoven

with taste, reason, connoisseurship, utility, sensibility and scientificity.12

Secondly, this case study is interesting because it illustrates how knowledge is

appropriated. As the studies on popularization, education, colonial science and

centre versus periphery have shown, the use of the concept of appropriation permits a

more in-depth analysis that overcomes traditional positivist accounts in reception

studies. It enables us to explore the complex patterns of interaction between the

different actors implicated, the various modes of use, and the conveyed political or

religious ideologies that engulfed scientific objects on the move.13

I will try to demonstrate that Pluche and Terreros conceived the Spectacle from the

very outset in very different ways. Pluche wrote his Spectacle for the education of the

young, and especially the families of country nobles, as he specified in the preface. He

was a keen defender of the new pedagogical methods and an unbending enthusiast of

experimental knowledge. The content, the format, the rhetoric and the structure

served that purpose. For the Spaniard Terreros, the Espectaculo was a useful tool for

the modernization of the country. His translation was also meant to be a political and

propaganda tool, making a strong defence for Spanish culture and science (especially

for Spanish descriptions of American flora, fauna and geography), and for Jesuit

contributions to science. He also stressed the need for women to become engaged in

such instructive lectures. Interestingly, Terreros seems committed to harmonize

experimental knowledge and scholastic tradition*more about this below.

Eighteenth-century scholars have stressed the blurred boundaries between

scientific knowledge, crafts, commerce, national economy and leisure at a time

when the professionalization of science had not yet been fully accomplished.14 The

12 Spary (note 6), 299.13 See for example Kostas Gavroglu et al, ‘Science and Technological in the European Periphery: Some

Historiographical Reflections’, History of Science, 46 (2008), 154–175; Agustı Nieto-Galan, Los publicos dela ciencia. Expertos y profanos a traves de la historia (Barcelona, 2011); Jonathan R. Topham ‘Rethinkingthe History of Science. Popularization/Popular Science’, in Popularizating Science and Technology in theEuropean periphery, 1800–2000 (Surrey, Burlington, 2009), 1–20; Juan Pimentel, ‘The Iberian vision:Science and empire in the framework of a universal monarchy, 1500–1800’, in Nature and Empire, edited byRoy MacLeod, Osiris 2nd series, 15 (2001), 17�30.

14 See for example Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel, ‘A science full of shocks, sparksand smells’, in Science and Spectacle in the European Enlightenment edited by Bernadette Bensaude-Vin-cent and Christine Blondel (London, 2005), 1–24; Patricia Fara, Sex, Botany and Empire: The Stories ofCarl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks (New York, 2003); Mary Fissell and Roger Cooter, ‘Exploring NaturalKnowledge’, in The Cambridge History of Science, edited by Roy Porter (Cambridge, 2003), IV, 129–156;Jan Golinski, ‘Barometers of change: Instruments as machines for Enlightenment’, in The Sciences inEnlightened Europe, edited by William Clark, Jan Golinski and Simon Schaffer (Chicago and London,1999), 69–93; idem Science as Public Culture. Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820 (NewYork, 1992); Ursula Klein and Emma Spary (eds.), Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe:Between Market and Laboratory (Chicago, 2010); Oliver Hochadel,‘The sale of shocks and sparks: itine-rant electricians in German Enlightenment’, in Science and Spectacle in the European Enlightenment editedby Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel (London, 2005), 89–101; Agustı Nieto-Galan,‘Between Craft Routines and Academic Rules: Natural Dyestuffs and the ‘Art’ of Dyeing in the EighteenthCentury’, in Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe. Between market and laboratory edited byUrsula Klein and Emma C. Spary (Chicago, 2010), 321–353; Lissa Roberts, Centres and cycles ofaccumulation in the Netherlands during the early-modern period (forthcoming); John H. Plumb, ‘Thecommercialization of leisure in Eighteenth-century England’, in The birth of a consumer society, by NeilMcKendrick, John Brewer and J.H. Plumb (London, 1983), 265�285.


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multi-layered Spectacle does not fit in any of the nineteenth or twentieth-century

moulds. As we shall see, it is simultaneously a popular and a scientific work, a

technical treatise, a religious pamphlet, a hands-on book and a pedagogical manual.

It was addressed at children, learned men, tutors, curious ladies, artisans andsalonniers, it could be read either in the educated household or in the workshop. Its

meanings and functions depend heavily on the context in which it is read, translated

or used. My point is that Terreros’s additions along with the editor’s selling strategies

and the critics’ comments effectively transform the Spectacle to serve the goals of

Spanish monarchy.

In the first part of my paper, I briefly describe Pluche’s book, its contents, aims,

philosophy and values. In the second part, I will discuss Terreros’ appropriation in

the milieu of the Madrid court.

2. Pluche’s book

For this section, I relied mostly on Trinkle (1997), Koepp (2006) and the volume

of collective essays, Gevrey (2006).15

2.1 A pedagogical writer

Antoine-Noel Pluche (Reims, 1688–Varenne-Saint Maur, 1761), better known as

abbe Pluche, became famous, wealthy, and recognized all over Europe thanks to Le

Spectacle de la Nature. The first of the eight volumes appeared in 1732, a duodecimal

volume printed in Paris by Robert Estienne.16 Six months later, two other authorized

editions came out, along with a pirate issue in Utrecht. The abbe continued adding

volumes until 1750, and also revised new editions and produced several more works

after retiring to his countryside property in Vareness-Saint Maur.17 Until then,

15 Dennis Trinkle, ‘Noel-Antoine Pluche’s ‘Le spectacle de la nature: an encyclopaedic best seller’,Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 358 (1997), 93–134. Cynthia Koepp, ‘Curiosity, science, andexperiential learning in the eighteenth century: reading the Spectacle de la nature’, in Childhood andchildren’s books in early modern Europe (1550–1800), edited by Andrea Immel and Michael Witmore (NewYork, 2006). Francoise Gevrey, Julie Boch and Jean-Louis Haquette (eds.), Ecrire la nature au XVIIIesiecle; autour de l’abbe Pluche (Paris, 2006). Benoıt De Baere, Trois introductions a l’Abbe Pluche: sa vie, sonmonde, ses livres (Geneve, 2001). See also Stephane Pujol, ‘Science et sociabilite dans les dialogues devulgarisation scientifique au XVIIIe siecle’, in Diffusion du savoir et affrontement des idees 1600�1770Festival d’histoire de Montbrison, 30 septembre au 4 octobre 1992 (Montbrison,1993), 79–95; RobertLoqueneux, ‘L’abbe Pluche, ou l’accord de la foi et de la raison a l’aube des Lumieres’, Sciences etTechniques en perspective, 2 (1998), 235–288. See also the biography of Pluche (‘Eloge historique demonsieur l’abbe Pluche’) that Robert Estienne included in Antoine-Noel Pluche, Concorde de la geographiedes differents ages (Parıs,1764). Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins ofModern Science (Cambridge, MA, 1989), 238–239, discussed Pluche in relation with gender education;Spary (nota 6) situated him in the French natural history context.

16 The chronologies of the eight volumes are as follows: I. Ce qui regarde les animaux et les plantes, 1732;II. Ce qui regarde les dehors et l’interieur de la terre, 1735; III. Ce qui regarde les dehors et l’interieur de laterre, 1735; IV. Ce qui regarde le ciel et les liaisons des differentes parties de l’univers avec les besoins del’homme, 1739; V. Ce qui regarde l’homme considere en lui-meme, 1746; VI–VII. Ce qui regarde l’homme ensociete, 1746; VIII. (1�2) Ce qui regarde l’homme en societe avec Dieu, 1750. For French quotations, I usedthe volumes digitalized in the Service Commun de la Documentation de Universite de Strasbourg: vols 1�4:(Parıs, 1739); vols 5�6: (Parıs, 1746). http://num-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr:8080/. Translations from French toEnglish come from the Spectacle de la Nature: or Nature delineated, translated by Jonh Nelly, D. Bellamyand J. Sparrow (London, 1760).

17 Among others: Histoire du ciel, 2 vols (Paris, 1732); La mecanique des langues et l’art de les enseigner(Paris, 1751); Concorde de la geographie des differens ages, ouvrage posthume de M. Pluche. Publie par l’abbePierre Thuilier, avec un eloge de l’auteur par Robert Estienne (Paris, 1765). See Francoise Gevrey, Julie Bochand Jean-Louis Haquette (note 15), 15�16.

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http://num-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr:8080/

Pluche’s life had been very busy. He was ordained abbe in 1710 and then obtained a

chair of Rhetoric at the University of Reims. Rumors about his Jansenists leanings

forced him to give up his post and ultimately to go into hiding in Normandy. His

friend Charles Rollin (1661–1741), already a famous pedagogue, recommended him

to Gasville, intendant of Normady, and Pluche became his son’s tutor. It was then

that he met the wealthy Lord William Stafford Howard, second earl of Stafford, who

asked him to teach physics to his youngest son. Pluche learned English and profusely

read English natural theology authors, including John Ray, Thomas Burnet, Richard

Bentley, and especially William Derham. Finally, he was allowed to return to Paris

where he wrote his Spectacle de la nature, or Entretiens sur les particularites de

l’Histoire naturelle qui ont paru les plus propres a rendre les jeunes gens curieux et a

leur former l’esprit.18

The title clearly stated its pedagogical vocation, that is, the desire to excite the

curiosity and form the minds of the young. In the preface, Pluche declared: ‘[ . . . ] we

imagined it would be more advantageous for our young Readers, whose improvement

was our principal View, not to be perplexed by abstruse Enquiries, but to select, from

the best Books of Natural History, such Particulars as were proper to excite their

Curiosity.’19 His aim to stimulate young curiosity is a recurrent message throughout

all of the volumes.20 In the following section, we will briefly review some of the

contents, aims, and pedagogical methods.

2.2 Mundane science

Pluche organized the topics hierarchically, from the apparently insignificant

insects, to God. Volume I, Ce qui regarde les animaux et les plantes (1732), is devoted

to natural history; it described insects, birds, flowers, mammals, fruit trees, and so on.

Volume II and III were about the surface and the interior of the earth, Ce qui regarde

les dehors et l’interior de la terre (1735). It dealt with fruit, agriculture, wine

production, wood, gardens, rivers, mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, fossils, the

generation of clouds (which is explained using the classic example of soap bubbles),

and finally the seas and the construction of ships. Pluche was well-informed about the

latest discoveries regarding the anatomy of insects and included classical etchings on

microscopic structures, such as the flea depicted by Hooke. Pluche strongly denied

spontaneous generation, and proposed some experiments to prove it. He defended

the flood theory for the origin of fossils and showed the internal layers of the earth.

The butterfly engravings came from Sybille Merian’s book on Surinam,21 and those

of birds and other animals from the traditional English and German natural history

18 Nature displayed. Being discourses on such particulars of natural history as were thought most proper toexcite the curiosity, and form the minds of youth. However, other translators highlighted its pious nature inthe title, see note 30.

19 Pluche (note 16), II, plan, iv: ‘[. . .] nous avons cru nous rendre plus utiles aux jeunes Lecteurs quenous avions en vue, en leur epargnant toutes les questions epineuses, & en choisissant dans les meilleurslivres d’histoire naturelle ce qui etoit propre a interesser leur curiosite’.

20 Pluche (note 16), I, preface: ‘Si ces amusemens ou etudes de vacances avoient le bonheur de plaire a lajeunesse & sur-tout a notre jeune noblesse, qui se trouvant souvent a la campagne, est plus a portee descuriosites naturelles, [. . .], a substituer le gout de la belle nature & l’amour du vrai, aux faux merveilleuxdes fables & des romans [. . .]’, ‘If these amusements or studies in vacant hours, have the good fortune to bepleasing to youth, and especially to the youth of our nobility, who, as they are frequently in the country aremore conversant with natural curiosities [. . .] to substitute a taste for amiable nature and truth in the placeof false marvels of fable and romance [. . .]’.

21 Maria Sybilla Merian (1647–1717), Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensis (1705).


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books we mentioned in the introduction. Finally, Pluche also included garden designs

and plants by connoisseurs of well-known Dutch painters and garden catalogues.22

These three volumes on natural history were written in a dialogue style, as was

the fashion for pedagogical writings. The Counts of Jonval and the Prior instructed

a young gentleman, the Chevalier, who had come to spend the holidays at their

country home.23 The characters had many hobbies, or innocent amusements, as

they were called at the time: the Countess collected shells, bird nests and butterflies.

Like Sybille Merien, or Madeleine Basseporte (1701–1780), who also collaborated

with the plates, the fictional character of the Countess drew beautiful paintings and

observed the delicate wings of butterflies through a microscope (Figure 2).24 She

reared silk-worms, observed the behaviour of moths, listened to the songs of her

birds in an aviary and grew strawberries in winter. The Count collected minerals

and kept them well-ordered in his cabinet of curiosities, the Prior grew tulips and

was a fellow of a learned society.

Pluche’s work was also a kind of How to do book, as Cynthia Koepp has put it,

like the popular books that explained how to prepare fireworks and cosmetics or

perform optical experiments. For the author, the best way to ensure a good

disposition for learning throughout one’s life was to stimulate curiosity in the young

by using practical examples and situations that required their active participation. Le

Spectacle described a great many games for helping children to learn, including a

portable printer to compose letters, coins and paintings to explain history and

drawings in the sand for geography. Pluche encouraged parents to play with their

daughters to teach them to be secretaries, to buy a carpenter’s box for studying

Figure 2. Butterflies from Surinam. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

22 Pinault-Sørensen (note 11), 145�149.23 In the preface, Pluche justifies the choice of ‘polite people who are conversant with the world’ instead

of great men like Descartes, Malebranche or Newton’ because his intention is ‘only to enjoy the minds ofyoung people with free conversation, suited to their abilities, and without perplexing them with charactersthat are too strongly marked’: ‘Comme il ne s’agit, apres tout, que de soulager l’esprit des jeunes lecteurspar une conversation libre & que soit a leur portee, sans les distraire cependant par des caracteres tropmarques’.

24 Madelaine Basseporte worked in the Jardin du roi. She drew from the many natural botanical plates,and some mammals.

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geometry or to make microscopes from a drop of water.25 The Chevalier learnt many

curiosities. But above all, he was taught moral lessons, as we will see. As the topics

got drier and the reader moved into experimental physics, the format also changed

accordingly. At the end of volume 3, the Chevalier returned home and there were nomore polite conversations. Henceforward, polite correspondence between the Prior

and the Chevalier substituted polite conversation.26

2.3 Celestial science

Volume IV (1739) Ce qui regarde le ciel et les liaisons des differentes parties de

l’univers avec les besoins de l’homme was dedicated to the heavens, and covered topicsas night and crepuscule, light and shadow, the nature of colours and fire,

microscopes, telescopes, and vacuum pumps. Pluche also included almost two

hundred pages on the history of physics, which he divided into ‘experimental

philosophy’ and ‘systematic physics’.27 In discussing the Newtonian force of

attraction, he introduced the mechanism described by the French academic, Joseph

Privat de Molieres (1677–1742), in which flexible vortices connected bodies and

communicated the force of attraction. As is well-known, Newton ‘modestly admitted’

that he could not explain the way attraction acts in the void.28 This was precisely oneof the main difficulties the theory encountered on the continent. According to

Pluche, ‘the Modern Cartesian System’, as he called Molieres’ flexible vortices theory,

could also unify and explain the other known forces of electricity and fermentation.

Finally, in an appendix, Pluche described the hypothesis of the Copernican system,

although his commentaries made it evident that he did actually consider it very

plausible (Figure 3).

In Volume V, Ce qui regarde l’homme considere en lui-meme (1746) the focus was

on ‘man himself ’, that is the function of the mind, the feelings, the senses andperception. It also dealt with logic, optics and gnomic (the art of telling the time by

the sun’s shadow) (Figure 4). Pluche stressed the importance of the imagination as a

powerful instrument of reason. The language for describing nature had to be rich and

colourful in order to excite the imagination and to move the reason. That

epistemological role of the imagination accounted for the style of Pluche’s prose.

The abbe anthropomorphised animals and ‘made the rocks speak’. He depicted

25 Pedagogical toys and games became popular from the late 18th century. See Jill Shefrin, The Dartons:Publishers of educational aids, pastimes and juvenile ephemera (Princeton, 2009); idem, ‘Make it a pleasureand not a task. Educational Games for Children in Georgian England’, Princeton University LibraryChronicle, 40 (1999), 251–275; Brian Alderson, ‘New Playthings and Gigantic Histories: The Nonage ofEnglish Children’s Books’, Princeton University Library Chronicle, 60 (1999), 178�95.

26 Steven Shapin, ‘The image of the man of science’, in The Cambridge history of science, edited David C.Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, 4 vols (Cambridge, 2003–2006), IV, 159�178.

27 For Pluche, experimental philosophy began in Ancient Times with the zodiac, the study of theheavens and navigation instruments �the compass and astrolabe. Pluche considered the Middle Age asbarren yet recognized the Arab contribution to the renaissance of science. He explained ‘modern’ instru-ments: telescope (Galileo, Newton), microscope (Leeuwenhoek), air-pump (Boyle), barometer and ther-mometer. Only the last twenty pages were dedicated to ‘systematic physic’, i.e. ‘the big system of Nature’.Epicure accounted for the first, followed by the Alchemists, Descartes, Gassendi and finally, Newton.

28 Pluche (note 16), IV: ‘La difference qui se trouve entre le systeme de M.Descartes y celui de M.Newton, c’est que le premier entreprend de rendre raison de tout; au lien que l’autre avouant modestementque nous ne conoissons point le fond de la nature, ne qu’eclaircir un point de fati, & en affigner la causefans la concevoir ni l’eclaircir’. Nature Displayed, 1760, IV, 268–278: ‘The difference between M. Descartesand Mr. Newton is that the former undertakes to account for everything; and the other, modestlyacknowledging that we are ignorant of the secrets of nature, pretends only to evince but one matter of fact,without undertaking to explain the cause’.


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nature’s beauty by stressing its symmetry and economy of forms and structures. He

engaged the reader with questions, interjections and the employment of capital

letters, and frightened him with huge figures and marvellous facts.

All these rhetorical ploys had a well-defined goal: the contemplation of nature’s

wonders must inspire admiration for and gratefulness to its creator.29 Le Spectacle de

la Nature is a book in the tradition of natural theology, a very popular genre during

the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth-century whose cultivators included

John Ray, Richard Bentley, William Derham, Bernard Nieuwentijdt, William Paley,

and Carl Linnaeus. While there were differences between them, all agreed in

discovering design in nature, thereby endowing the study of nature with a religious

purpose.30 For Pluche, in particular, everything was designed by a higher being to

satisfy human needs*sheep had wool to keep us warm, tides were for ships to enter

Figure 3. The Copernican hypothesis. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

29 I have used here ‘natural theology’ in the sense of gathering proofs for the ‘manifold and wondrousworks of God, as an affirmation of faith in, not an attempted proof of, divine wisdom’, as Brookesuggested when dealing with the contexts of monotheistic religions. Hedley Brooke, ‘Natural Theology’, inScience and religion: A historical introduction edited by Gary Ferngren (Baltimore, 2002), 163�175, 164. Ithank the anonymous referee for qualifying this point. See also: Hedley Brooke Science and religion. Anhistorical perspective (Cambridge, 1993); Hedley Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor, Reconstructing nature: Theengagement of science and religion (Edinburgh, 2000).

30 The translators of the 1760 English edition (J. Nelly, of the Inner Temple; D. Bellamy, of St. John’sCollege; and J. Sparrow, surgeon and mathematician) strengthen the pious character of Pluche’s work andtitled it: Spectacle de la Nature or Nature Delineated being Philosophical Conversations Where in TheWonderful Works of Providence, in the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral Creation are laid open; the Solar andPlanetary System, and whatever is curious in Mathematicks, explain’d. The Whole being a complete Course ofNatural and Experimental PHILOSOPHY, calculated for the Instruction of YOUTH, in order to preparethem for an early Knowledge of NATURAL HISTORY, and create in their Minds an exalted Idea of theWisdom of the GREAT CREATOR. They also included this quotation on the front page (I. Watts):‘NATURE is Nothing but the Art of GOD; a bright Display of that Wisdom, which demands an EternalTribute of Wonder and Worship’. (Capital letters in the original).

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harbours, poor people was necessary for the rich. There was a utilitarian, teleological

and philosophically optimistic concept of nature in Le Spectacle.

2.4 The role of arts et metiers in experimental knowledge

The same year, 1746, Pluche published volumes VI and VII, Ce qui regarde

l’homme en societe, man in society. He first explained the origin of society, marriageand education, and then continued with the arts of embroidery, carpentry and

engraving, how to polish glasses, make bells and clocks. He described machines for

coin-making, making wax-tapers and candles and cutting diamonds, among other

things. He also explained simple geometry and the mechanical laws in order to

understand the working of levers, presses, pulleys, and other devices. In the preface,

the author had argued for the need to use this knowledge in the education of young

people.31 Like Robinson Crusoe (which he encouraged children to read, in clear

contradiction to the official position of Spanish Catholicism, which forbade it), agentleman should know all the arts. There were practical reasons*not to be cheated,

for example, but his respect and admiration for the artisan’s work was related to his

understanding of what natural philosophy and scientific inquiry were about.

Pluche defended a useful and productive science. He constantly argued against

fruitless scholastic discussions or the vain ambition of those who try to ‘unveil the

primary principles’ of things. The natural philosopher had to be devoted to the

Figure 4. Mathematics. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

31 Koepp (note 15) discussed the role of practical arts in Pluche’s vision of gentleman’s education.


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community and had to investigate things that were useful for mankind: there was

more science in a monastery kitchen than in the library.32 The limit to man’s

curiosity had to be usefulness, and his conclusions must be proved by experiment

alone. Pluche’s concept of ‘experimental’ knowledge was mainly defined by its

The invention of the telescope. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

32 Pluche (note 16): ‘It was very common that in the convents where Philosophy was taught, to find lesshealthy Physics in the Brother Reader or in the Master than in the Brother that prepares the medicines orcultivate vegetables’.

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opposite, ‘systematic’ knowledge.33 The systematic philosophers were the Epicureans,

the Aristotelians, Gassendi, Descartes, the Newton of gravity, mathematicians

such as Huygens and Bernoulli, and all those who ‘aim to account for and explain

the Original and the inward Frame of the whole Universe’. Experimental

philosophers were Boyle, the Newton of the Opticks, and above all, the ‘great

Observer’ Rene-Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur (1683–1757). In these volumes, we

find most of the plates concerning the arts and crafts. According to Pinault-

Sørensen, Pluche used the information collected by the Royal Academie des

Sciences in 1693 for the elaboration of the Descriptions des Arts et Metiers.34

Finally, volume VIII (in two tomes), came out in 1750 and is devoted to theology,

Ce qui regarde l’homme en societe avec Dieu.

The distribution of topics responded to a particular pedagogical method of

increasing complexity as youths grew up. For instance, Rollin’s Etudes recommended

that children’s instruction began with the ‘physics of the garden’, then progressed to

the ‘physics of wise people’ and finally ended in the ‘physic of the Heavens’.35 Despite

the apparently unstructured dialogues, every piece of information could be localized.

There were indexes of conversations, plates and topics and all through the marginalia

that described the subject being dealt with or the sources Pluche had consulted.36

These maps enabled a more direct and informative reading, and perhaps another type

of reader, one who was learned and concerned about the accurateness of the

information.37

In conclusion: The abbe dedicated his work to the education of youth, both in

science and morals. He employed many means to capture their attention:

characters, dialogues, scenery, topics, structure, examples, the display of polite

fashion, the rhetoric of natural theology, and engravings. This is not to say that

only young people read the book, quite the contrary. Instructive collective lectures

33 Pluche (note 16), ‘Histoire de la physique systematique’ IV, 541–572. An example of Pluche opinionabout the ‘systematic philosopher and the ‘calculateurs infatigables’ in 563: ‘Je me garderai bien d’entrer icidans le detail des systemes qu’ont imagines sur la pesanteur Mrs Hugens, Bulinger, Bernouilli & biend’autres. Ce n’est la qu’un point de la mechanique de l’univers. Demandez en l’explication a cinquantephysiciens : ils croiront tous vous donner une physique d’autant plus estimable, qu’ils y employeront plusde calculs & de geometrie. Mais il y a souvent bien loin de l’arithmetique &de la geometrie, a la physique.Tous ces calculateurs infatigables, meme en partant souvent du meme principe, vous conduiront a dessommes differentes, a differents mechanismes, & a autant de systemes qu’ils sont de tetes’. ‘I shall take carehere not to enter into a personal Account of the System’s idea of Gravity such as those of Meff. Huygens,Bulfinger, Bernoully and many others. This is only a single Point of the Mechanics of the Universe. Ask foran Explanation of it from fifty Naturalists, and they all will think they have given you a Scheme of Physics,one that is all the more valuable in Proportion as they shall use more Calculations and Geometry therein.But the Distance between Arithmetic, and Geometry and Physics, is often very great. And these indefa-tigable Calculists, though often setting out from the same Point, will lead you to very different Sums, tovery different Mechanisms, and to as many Systems as there are Heads’.

34 Pinault-Sørensen (note 11). In 1701, Reaumur led the project. He accumulated information from allaround the French provinces for the designs of the planches. However, he left the project unfinished.Pluche would have employed many of those reports, as the Encyclopedie team also did.

35 Koepp (note 15) has extensively discussed the modern pedagogical methods employed by the abbe.36 Pluche mentioned his sources in order to convince the reader: Pluche (note 16), I, preface, v: ‘Mais le

Lecteur sera plus dispose a gouter ce qu’il verra garanti par les temoignages des observateurs modernes quiont acquis une estime universelle par leur exactitude & par leur precision’. ‘The Reader will be moredisposed to relish what he finds warranted by Testimony of modern Observers, who have gained universalReputation by their Accuracy and Circumspection’.

37 There is a Spanish copy where an informed reader rectifies the location of one of these marginal notes.In the third edition at Biblioteca de Catalunya, IX, 66, the reader has crossed out the note in the margin: ‘elestomago del hombre’ and put it in the correct place, two pages later.


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were common for the time,38 Pluche includes information specifically addressed to

parents and tutors and there were also many hints that suggested different types

of readings that range from the curious to the erudite.39

On the whole, however, Pluche’s books were avowedly addressed to and

designed for young people, and they seemed to have been recognised as such in

France and some other countries. Now, let us move on to Spain.

3. Terreros’ Espectaculo de la Naturaleza

3.1 A curious father in Madrid’s polite society

Esteban de Terreros y Pando (1707–1782) was born in a small village in

Northern Spain (Trucios, Basque Country). When he was twenty, he entered the

Jesuit order and from 1744 to 1767 he taught mathematics and experimental

physics (which he probably learned himself) at the two Jesuit colleges in Madrid,

the Seminario de Nobles and the Colegio Imperial.40 These two colleges were key

elements of the reformist agenda of the recently arrived Bourbon dynasty. They

were to provide the crown with competent administrators to run the country,

something that the universities had proved incapable of doing.41 In Terreros’ days,

the two colleges appointed good professors in natural philosophy and mathe-

matics, such as the Bohemian Johann Wendlingen (1715–1790), who was

commissioned for the recently created astronomy observatory, and the Austrian

38 Roger Chartier ‘Culture as appropriation: Popular cultural uses in early Modern France’, inUnderstanding popular culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to nineteenth century, edited by Steven L.Kaplan (Amsterdam, 1984), 229–53; Mary Terrall, ‘Natural philosophy for fashionable readers’, in Booksand the sciences in history, edited by Marina Frasca-Spada and Nick Jardine (Cambridge, 2000), 239–253.

39 For example, he included a whole chapter devoted to how to educate girls and boys in Lettre d’un perede famille sur la premiere culture de l’espri VI, 73–261.

40 Pedro Alvarez de Miranda,‘Perfil biografico del padre Terreros’, in Esteban de Terreros y Pando:vizcaıno, polıgrafo y Jesuita. III centenario: 1707–2000 (Bilbao, 2009); Alvar (note 1). According to Alvarezde Miranda, Terreros’ four principal biography sources are: Antonio Perez Goyena,‘Un sabio filosofovizcaıno’. Razon y Fe, 94 (1931), 5–19 and 124–135; the Memoria included in the fourth volume of theDiccionario Castellano con las voces de Ciencias y artes written by the royal librarian Miguel de Manuel yRodrıguez (1793); an article in the unpublished Lorenzo Hervas y Panduro, Biblioteca Jesuıtico-espanola(1759–1799), estudio crıtico, introduccion y notas de Antonio Astorgano (Madrid, 2007) and some lettersfrom Terreros kept in the Real Academia de la Historia de Espana (9–7226). Also, Terreros left muchbiographical information in many entries of his dictionary: Isabel Echevarrıa, ‘El autor en el Diccionariode Terreros’, in Actas del II Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Espanola de Historiografıa Linguıstica,Leon, 2–5 de marzo de 1999, edited by Marina Maquieira et al (Madrid, 2001), 371–384. For Terreros’contribution to mathematics, see: Agustı Udıas, ‘El padre Terreros y Pando, professor de matematicas’, inEsteban de Terreros y Pando: Vizcaıno, polıgrafo y jesuita. III Centenario: 1707–2000 (Bilbao, 2009), 127�142.

41 For the Seminario de Nobles, see Francisco Aguilar Pinal, ‘Los reales Seminarios de Nobles en lapolıtica ilustrada espanola’, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, 356 (1980), 329–349 and Valverde (note 6). Agood summary of the role of universities in Jose Luis Peset, ‘La disputa de las facultades’, in Historia de laciencia y de la tecnica en la corona de Castilla, edited by Garcıa Ballester, 4 vols (Valladolid, 2002), IV, 11–22. On the Colegio Imperial, see ‘Los libros y manuscritos de los profesores de matematicas en el ColegioImperial’. Archivorum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 74 (2005), 369–448 and Jose Simon Dıaz, Historia delColegio Imperial de Madrid, 2 vols (Madrid, 1952), I. On the contribution of the Jesuit Company, seeVictor Navarro, ‘Science and enlightenment in eighteenth-century Spain: The contribution of the Jesuitsbefore and after the expulsion’, in Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773 edited by John W.O’Malley et al. (Toronto, 2006), 390–404; idem, ‘La renovacion de la actividad cientıfica en la Espana del s.XVII y las disciplinas fısico-matematicas’, in El siglo de las luces: de la ingenierıa a la nueva navegacion,edited by Manuel Silva (Zaragoza, 2005), II, 33–74; Malet (note 7); idem, La recepecio de la cienciamoderna a Catalunya: Isaac Newton a la Barcelona del set-cents, conference 12 sep. (Barcelona, 2007).

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Christian Rieger (1714–1780), who wrote treatises on electricity and architecture.42

The colleges were generously endowed by the crown, which provided them with

expensive scientific instruments brought from London and Vienna. The Seminario

de Nobles was endowed with a chair specifically devoted to ‘Experimental

Physics’.43

In Spain, Terreros played an active part in what Jardine, Secord and Spary

have called the ‘cultures of natural history’.44 As mentioned above, he set up a

huge correspondence network and visited many craft workshops around Spanish

geography. He also gathered a well-provided cabinet of curiosities, visited other

collections and botanical gardens, attended literary tertulias (meetings), and

performed his own experiences. We have records of his observations on

phosphorous, the barometer, the preservation of boiled eggs, and the properties

of medicinal herbs.45

Terreros also organized public mathematics spectacles in the Seminario de

Nobles, named Conclusiones matematicas. In such performances, several privileged

students danced, played music and theatre, explained algebraic and mechanic

problems, geographical paradoxes, natural curiosities, Newton’s theory of sea-tides

Figure 5. Cider press. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

42 Christian Rieger, Observaciones physicas sobre la fuerza electrica grande y fulminante, confirmada yaumentada con nuevos experimentos (Madrid,1763). The author himself recognized Terreros’ help with theSpanish in the preface. He also wrote on architecture: Christian Rieger, Elementos de toda la arquitecturacivil con las mas singulares observaciones de los modernos (Madrid, 1763).

43 The professor was Antonio Zacagnini. He translated the six volumes of Jean-Antoine Nollet’s Leconsde Physique Experimentale in 1757, which he presumably used in his lessons. Udıas (note 40).

44 Nicholas Jardine, James Secord, Emma Spary, Cultures of Natural History (Cambridge, 1996).45 Terreros attended the tertulias at the Countess of Salcedo (Francisco Javier de Goyeneche) and

Sarmientos’ place, see Echevarrıa (note 40).


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and the heliocentric system. How could a Jesuit deal with the paradox of

explaining the Newtonian system but at the same time follow the Roman

Inquisition’s condemnation of Copernicus? The solution adopted at the catedra

of mathematics in the Royal Seminario de Nobles was to explain all of the systems

in the form of mathematical hypotheses (see Figure 3). We have an example in the

Conclusiones Matematicas of 1748. The Newtonian System was explained after

those of Ptolemy, Plato, the Egyptians, Tycho Brahe, and Aristarch de Samos.46

The Seminario was organized in a similar way to other educational institutions run

by the Jesuits, such as the Colegio de Cordelles in Barcelona.47

Accounts of these performances were not only published but also quoted in the

official press, the Gazeta de Madrid.48 As Malet has argued for the Barcelona Colegio

de Cordelles, those spectacles strongly legitimated the new experimental knowledge

and served to forestall possible attacks against it by the Inquisition by presenting it in

harmony with Roman Catholic doctrine.49

Terreros organized four of these spectacles, whose accounts were published in

1744, 1748, 1751 and 1754. Two of them (1748, and 1751) were held in the presence of

the recently king Fernando VI (1746–1758) and his spouse, Barbara de Braganza.

Significantly, the students performed a play, The triumph of science, which seemed to

much please the royal couple.50 Fernando VI developed an agenda centred on peace

in foreign affairs and internal reconstruction, with special care given to the protection

of the arts and sciences. His predecessor, Felipe V, grandson of the French Luis XIV,

had engaged the country in endless wars for almost forty-six years. On the contrary,

Fernando VI and his ministers, the Marquis de la Ensenada and Jose de Carvajal y

Lancaster, fought decidedly for neutrality and constructed the image of a peaceful

king.51 In his mere twelve years of monarchy, Fernando VI created the Royal

Academy of San Fernando to popularize the new style of good taste, which was very

different to Spanish baroque, the Aranjuez gardens were adapted for summer

concerts and operas, and the Buen Retiro theatre was redesigned. He created the

astronomical observatory in Cadiz (1753), the botanical garden in Madrid (1755),

and schools for surgeons and marines.52 So, it was not unusual for Terreros to

46 In 1766, just before the Jesuit expulsion from Spain, besides the classical topics of latin and rhetoric,general geography and geography of the globes, they were taught experimental physics and mathematics,which includes geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, optics, mechanics, fortification and military architec-ture, nautical and music. The mathematic contents of those conclusions are discussed in Udıas (note 40),283�286.

47 Conclusiones mathematicas dedicadas al Serenıssimo y Eminentıssimo Senor Don Luıs de Borbon[. . .]presididas por el padre Estevan de Terreros, maestro de mathematicas en el mismo seminario (Madrid, 1744);Conclusiones matematicas dedicadas a D. Fernando VI [. . .] presididas por Esteban de Terreros i Pando(Madrid, 1748); Conclusiones mathematicas, practicas y especulativas, defendidas en el Real Seminario deNobles, en presencia de sus Majestades Catolicas [. . .], bajo la instruccion y magisterio del R.P. Estevan deTerreros (Madrid, 1751).

48 See for example, Gaceta de Madrid, 19th April 1757, n816, 128: ‘se divirtieron sus magestades entrevarias y curiosas experiencias de Physica’.

49 Malet (note 7).50 Fernando VI gave twenty thousand ‘doblones’ to the Jesuits on the same night. Quoted in Javier

Burrieza, ‘Esteban de Terreros: retrato jesuıto de un maestro de la palabra’, in Esteban de Terreros y Pando:vizcaıno, polıgrafo y Jesuita. III centenario: 1707–2007 (Bilbao, 2009), 292–328, 311. The play was entitled:La ciencia triumphante: drama alegorico representado a los Reyes Fernando el Sexto y dona Barbara, poralgunos Cavalleros Seminaristas del Real Seminario de Nobles de Madrid (Madrid, without year).

51 Sanchez-Blanco (note 6); Antonio Bonet and Beatriz Blasco (ed.), Fernando VI y Barbara deBraganza: un reinado bajo el signo de la paz (1746–1759) (Madrid, 2002).

52 Lafuente (note 6), Lafuente-Pimentel (note 6).

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dedicate the translation of the Spectacle in 1753 to the Queen, and declare that the

goals of both the Spectacle and the Monarchy were the same, namely ‘public

happiness’.53

But there were also genre connotations. In a long paragraph in the preface,

Terreros stressed his concern for women’s education and the need to cultivate their

taste for good books, a contemporary issue that was the subject of heated debate in

periodicals, pedagogical treatises and tertulias.54 Scholars have highlighted the social

changes that Spanish society underwent with the arrival of Bourbon dynasty. Besides

funding and supporting scientific and pedagogical institutions, the royal couple

promoted luxurious ceremonies, concerts, operas, etc. which encouraged the

participation of women.55 Spanish tradition had secluded women in their households

and put them, in respectable silence, physically apart from men, keeping their eyes

modestly down. All of this was now mocked and constructed as rude and old-

fashioned. In contrast, ‘modern’ women were supposed to look straight into the eyes

of men, be cultivated and smart in conversation, to stroll along the Prado promenade,

go to the theatre, operas and concerts, and open a salon.56 Along with the relative

increase in women’s freedom, the role of women in the family changed. Their role as

co-educator or even first tutor of their children was enhanced and the question arose

of what a woman had to know in order to do her job best. So Terreros’ preface and

dedicatory strongly suggest that he was seeking a female audience.

And if we are to believe the influential literary critic Sempere y Guarinos’s

Reflexiones sobre el Buen Gusto (1782), the Spectacle was very well received among

women. In his words, it was so well received that women began to talk about natural

history and crafts: ‘Even in the estrados and among the Ladies it became fashionable

to talk about the Natural History of animals, plants and minerals, and about crafts

and manufacturing, issues that were completely unknown except to the craftsmen

themselves and a few learned men’.57

Sempere described books that had influenced the Spaniards’ ‘good taste’. To put

Sempere’s words in perspective we must remember that women’s literacy was

beginning to be seen as an indicator of a country’s development and that Sempere

was writing an apology for Spain against foreign views which described the country

53 Terreros’ dedicatory: ‘Who cannot see that her Majesty and the Espectaculo de la Naturaleza, indicatethe same character, are guided by the same end and have the same purpose?,’ ‘Quien no ve, que a V. Mag, yal Espectaculo de la Naturaleza los senala un mismo caracter, que miran a un mismo fin, y que tienen lasmismas ideas?’.

54 Terreros (note 1), I, dedicatory ‘[. . .] without daughters being exempt from this instruction, being inlittle agreement with the reason that their gender has to force them into ignorance, from which it is born,for as they cannot always be occupied with the work that is theirs, they reject books, which they never heldin their hands [. . .]’.

55 In baroque Spanish houses, there were specially designed places for women in the parlour, called‘estrados’. There was a little fence, which separated them from other people, with small chairs wherewomen could sit to do embroidery.

56 Carmen Martın Gaite, Usos amorosos del dieciocho en Espana (Barcelona,1981); Isabel Morant,Amor, matrimonio y familia (Madrid, 1998); Emilio Palacios, La mujer y las letras en la Espana del XVIII(Madrid, 2002); Monica Bolufer, ‘Neither male, nor female: Rational Equality in the Early Spanish En-ligtenment’, in Women, Gender and Enlightenment edited by Sarah Knott and Barbara Taylor (Houndmills,2005), 389–409; idem, Mujeres y modernizacion: estrategias culturales y practicas social)es (siglos XVIII–XX )(Madrid, 2008); idem,’ ‘Las mujeres en la cultura de la Ilustracion’, in Ilustracion, ciencia y tecnica en elsiglo XVII espanol edited by Enrique Martınez, Pi Corrales and Magdalena de Pazzis (Valencia, 2008).Sally-Ann Kitts, Debate on the nature, role and influence of woman in eighteenth-century Spain (Lewiston,New York, 1995).

57 Sempere y Guarinos (note 9), 279.


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as backward.58 However, the fact was that in Spain no scientific work had been

addressed specifically at women, so Pluche’s dialogues, in which a Countess took

such an active and prominent role and so ardently defended her own instruction may

have delighted the Spanish female public.59 We know that jokes were going around

about the female passion for natural sciences, a strong indication that it was

fashionable.60 I have found a copy of the 1757 edition in which the reproduction of a

hermaphrodite snail had been ripped out. That is the kind of information that was

unsuitable for a lady’s ears and eyes.61

In 1767, (Carlos III was now the king), the Jesuit order was banished from the

territories of the Spanish crown, and Terreros had to leave the country. The first

volume of his dictionary on the terminology of the arts and sciences had been already

printed, and the second volume was halfway done, but the overall enterprise had to

wait twenty years to comeout.62 He also left behind another profusely annotated

translation of Pluche’s work Histoire du ciel.63 Terreros died in 1782 in Forlı, where he

translated an Italian grammar for Spaniards.

3.2 A luxury and fully-annotated edition

The four editions of the Spanish Espectaculo were luxury editions with generous

margins, good paper and perfect engravings. This I should stress, because this was not

the norm in other countries. In the English market, for instance, the successive

editions of Le Spectacle were becoming cheaper, the typefaces smaller, and of worse

quality overall.64 The editors saved on the engravings by joining some of them

together while showing no respect for the contents*for example, three models of

vessels appear on the same page as mammals. In some volumes, all the plates were

joined together at the very beginning instead of being intercalated with the text.

In Spain, on the other hand, the first and second editions of the Espectaculo were

made by one of the best printers in the country, Joaquim Ibarra.65 Ibarra established

himself in Madrid in 1753. Along with Sancha, he published the most prestigious

58 Bolufer (note 56).59 For example, in Terreros (note 1), II, 43, the Countess complained about the banal conversations that

usually men have with women: ‘The conversation that they have with us is only about fashion, games and agobbledygook of politics and good manners. It is a kind of miracle when one of us saves herself from theshipwreck and shows discretion and soundness’. The Countess went on to list the disciplines that must betaught to girls: Religion, History and the ‘wonderful works of the Creator’ and she detailed the usefulthings that her husband had taught her: ‘why a tree needs to be pruned, what land needs in order toproduce fruit [. . .]’.

60 In Historia del famoso fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes by Jose Francisco de Isla (1703–1781),it was said that ladies took a dead body in their carriages just to dissect it. Quoted by Lafuente andPimentel (note 6). The Spectacle was also a best-seller among English ladies, as the list of subscriberssuggests in the 1742 English edition (Biblioteca de Catalunya).

61 Biblioteca de Catalunya, 2 ed., II, 248–249: ‘son hermafroditas, y tienen juntamente los dos sexos, desuerte que cada uno de ellos da la fecundidad al otro de quien la recibe al mismo tiempo’

62 The royal librarians managed to finish the task thanks to the Jesuit having left all the materialperfectly arranged. The volumes came out between 1786�1793

63 Udias (note 402), 290, refers to a possiblye earlier older manuscript at the Biblioteca del Palacio Real(II/1758). In Forlı, he also undertook the translation of an Italian grammar for Spaniards.

64 The first English edition (1733), translated by Samuel Humphreys and also published in London, byJ. and J. Pemberton and R. Franklin, was elaborately made, with generous margins and perfectly printedplates. The 1739 edition is smaller, its paper and the plates do not look as good, and the margins and thelettering have narrowed.

65 The first volumes were printed by Gabriel Ramırez, but Ibarra continued.

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scientific works, such as Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle, and Juan and Ulluoa’s Viaje

Meridional.66 It was clear then that the Espectaculo was conceived both by the

translator and the editor as an outstanding work. The third and fourth editions,

printed after the Jesuit expulsion, were made by the Companıa de Impresores del

Reino, a collective company that invested in profitable books, such as Feijoos’

reprints. In none of the fourth editions did the text change, not even the captions.

However, the engravings were different for the third and fourth editions. This made

for some mismatched captions, as we will see later.

The most eye-catching difference between the Spanish and foreign editions is that

Pluche’s work was delivered in sixteen volumes instead of eight. The editor merely

divided the original volumes into two, so that only the even volumes had a

frontispiece and the author’s ‘Plan’ for the volume. The Spanish volumes were thinner

and more luxurious; the wider margins allow for a clear disposition of epigraphs and

author’s notes, etc.

A second, highly visible and more significant difference is the huge number of

footnotes added by Terreros to Pluche’s original*more than 1,500. I have classified

them into different groups, according to their function. (i) Some that I have called

‘pedagogical’ provided lexicographic and scientific information or ‘translate’ the

French context into the Spanish one, (ii) others were devoted to American flora and

fauna, to present Spanish contributions to science, and to defend Spain’s image and

Figure 6. Ploughs. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

66 Raul Rodrıguez, Antonio Gonzalez, ‘La imprenta y los grabados cientıficos: la imagen y la palabra’,in Historia de la Ciencia y la Tecnica en la Corona de Castilla, 4 vols, edited by Luıs Garcıa Ballester(Valladolid, 2002), IV, 93–107.


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reputation as a civilized nation, (iii) finally, others allowed for Terreros to argue with

Pluche over scientific controversies and to describe Terreros’ own experiences and

experiments.

The first group containing lexicographic and scientific information was by far the

largest. As mentioned in the introduction, Terreros’ strong concern for precision in

matters of vocabulary led him to send hundreds of inquiries and forms all around

Spain to be filled in by learned people. For Terreros, the Espectaculo was meant above

all to be useful: an encyclopaedic work of reference for the arts and sciences, which

the nation needed and perfectly dovetailed with the reformist agenda of the Spanish

monarchy. This may explain why Terreros slightly modified Pluche’s subtitle by

adding the fashionable adjective ‘useful’ after ‘curiosity’.67

As we have seen, Pluche was concerned with the education of young gentlemen.

However, Terreros had a patriotic goal. His preface encouraged ‘artisans, peasants,

engineers, dealers, etc.’ to read the book. With its help, the peasant would learn to

plough his land better, the naval engineer to construct better ships, the gardener to

beautify his flowers, the craftsman to improve his instruments.68 Of course, Terreros

did not expect the peasants themselves to read the book: the country had the highest

illiteracy rates in Europe and the expensive edition of the book meant only rich

people could afford it. Terreros’ rhetoric of utility is probably addressed at artisan

masters but also at rich landowners, landed nobility and country gentry

(terratenientes), at the learned elites, and at moral authorities such as parish priests.

It is revealing, for instance, that Pluche was quoted as an authority in agricultural

treatises.69

Practical knowledge about crafts and manufactures was conveyed by both the text

and graphic images. While the Spanish editors copied the French engravings, Terreros

made a point of adding comments and explanations about the differences between

French and Spanish procedures and machines.70 Sometimes he recommended French

machines, as occurred with an apple press for cider-making (Figure 5).71 These

engravings, in contrast with the natural history ones, were made to scale and provided

much detailed information. They listed all the different parts and offered different

machine profiles (see Figure 6).Interestingly, Terreros’ translation was noticeably more pedagogical than the

original. He seemed to think Spanish readers were generally less learned, and in

particular less knowledgeable of scientific terminology than those of the French

original. Accordingly, he added numerous notes to explain scientific, mathematical

67 Espectaculo de la Naturaleza, o Conversaciones a cerca de las particularidades de la historia natural, quehan parecido mas a proposito para excitar una curiosidad util, y formarles la razon a los jovenes lectores.

68 Terreros (note 1), preface: ‘[. . .] that the Farmer should use these books to fertilise the land better, theGardener to make more beautiful flowers, Herders and Landowners to take better advantage of theirharvests, for Dealers to lawfully increase their income, for Artisans to all improve their instruments;Society as a whole should benefit from this work’.

69 For example, in the prologue of Josefa Amar’s translation of the Italian Francesco Griselini (1717–1783). Francesco Griselini, Discurso sobre el problema de si corresponde a los parrocos y curas de las aldeasel instruir a los labradores (Zaragoza, 1783). See Josefa Gomez, ‘El Padre Terreros traductor de la obra dePluche’, in Esteban de Terreros y Pando: vizcaıno, polıgrafo y Jesuita (Bilbao, 2009), 249-273, 256.

70 Terreros (note 1) XXII, 40, a three quarter page note explains Castilian ploughs.71 Idem, IV, 202: ‘Todo esto se podra adelantar mucho, a vista de la exactitud, curiosidad y proporcion

que usan en sus maquinas otras Naciones’.

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and medical concepts and procedures, including ‘heterogeneous mixture’, ‘iris’,

‘gnomic’, ‘analysis’ (its meanings both in mathematics and chemistry),72 the way

mechanical machines such as jacks operated and techniques that were not widely

used in Spain, such as crystal bells to protect fruit from the cold.73

Generally speaking, Terreros balanced the French bias of the Spectacle by

providing related Spanish data and information. There are many examples of this all

throughout the text. To quote only a few: When Pluche mentioned Parisian latitude,

Terreros added Madrid’s and recalculated time difference between Madrid and Peking.

If Pluche referred to the good wines produced in the Languedoc, Terreros mentioned

the Riojas. If the best lands for producing honey in France were depicted, Terreros brought

up the Spanish Alcarria. Pluche described the French wood for making charcoal to be

mixed with gunpowder and Terreros explained the Spanish use of hemp (canamo).When French instructive literature was quoted, Terreros added Spanish writers.

But perhaps the most dramatic example of Terreros’ efforts to adapt the French

original for a Spanish audience is that he replaced a whole chapter on ‘French

Palaeography’ with one devoted to ‘Spanish Palaeography’. Again, this is something

the English translators did not do.74

3.3 The Spanish contribution to science and the defence of Spain

Terreros included many references to the flora, fauna, geography, and

inhabitants of the New World. For example, he expanded the uses of tobacco

and indigo-blue, he praised the vanilla from the Antilles, corrected the abbe Pluche

on the source of the Amazon and the distance between the tropics, and included a

new engraving for the Touca, a Brazilian bird species. His main source for his

generally accurate and competent account of American matters was the valuable

and highly original volumes by Antonio de Ulloa (1716–1795) and Jorge Juan(1713–1795). In 1748, Ulloa and Juan published the Relacion Historica del viaje a

la America Meridional, five volumes on American natural history, ethnography,

meteorology, geodesy, etc.75 The two marine officers had actively participated in

the Hispano-French scientific expedition to Peru to measure one degree of the

meridian*an initiative of the French Academie des Sciences to settle the dispute

about the shape of the Earth.76 Their book was translated into French, English,

Dutch, and German and widely read in Europe.

As is well known, the debate on the shape of the Earth was a debate betweenCartesians and Newtonians, the former defending an oblong earth while the

72 On the Iris (VII, 152): ‘Medicinal term, an arc, that we have in the eyes, around the pupil, on a tuniccalled Rhagoid or Ubea, called Iris for the variety of colours [. . .]’ On heterogeneous water (V, 57): ‘That is,it has bodies of different species added inside, such as earths, minerals’. On ordinary machines such aspulleys, presses, winches, he explains that a jack is a ‘very efficient machine that thanks its many wheels,multiplies its force’ (X, 72). On analysis (XI, 230): ‘In algebra, it is said of the resolution of all problems,and in chemistry, it is the resolution of compound matter in its simple parts or principles, to find out itsexact nature’.

73 Idem, IV, 4.74 Idem, XIII, 201–360. It is not clear whether Andres Marcos Burriell (1719–1762), a Jesuit erudite and

the director of the Royal Colegio Imperial was indeed the author. Spanish Paleography was also publishedas an independent book in 1758, by Joaquim Ibarra.

75 Jorge Juan, Observaciones Astronomicas y Fıscas, hechas de orden de S.M en los reinos de Peru y de loscuales se dice la figura y magnitude de la Tierra, with detailed experiments dealing with the methods employedto measure the meridian arc, Jupiter’s satellites, metal dilatation, pendulum periods, etc. (Madrid, 1748).

76 An accurate account of the voyage in Antonio Lafuente and Antonio Mazuecos, Los caballeros delpunto fijo (Madrid, 1987).


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Newtonians argued for a flattened earth. Pluche had ignored the heated debate going

on at the Academie des Sciences and did not discuss the shape of the Earth: ‘We don’t

want to discuss the debated question about whether the Earth flattens or draws out at

the poles, because it would only be an inappreciable difference’. This was also the

position taken by English translators.77 However, Terreros corrects the abbe by

rewriting the precise measurement of the meridian arc.78 By highlighting Ulloa’s and

Juan’s contributions, Terreros stressed the Spanish contribution to science.He also vigorously defended against Spain’s image of being a barbarous and

backward country. Long before the appearance of Masson de Morvilliers’ article

about Spain in the Encyclopedie methodique (1782), Spain’s international image and

reputation had been on the wane.79 In Pluche we find ironic or negative comments

about the conquest of America, Spanish literature, language, and even the way to

make chocolate. Terreros followed the strategy of ‘exposing the fault and arguing

against it’. He did not refuse to translate the controversial paragraphs, but added

footnotes to discuss Pluche’s commentaries, thereby providing Spanish readers with

Figure 7. Birds. See the Manucodiata large ropes. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona.

77 Pierre Louis de Maupertuis returned from his expedition to Lapland in 1737, which was launched in1735 simultaneously with the one to Peru in which Ulloa and Juan took part. The data suggested the flatshape of the Earth, but Pluche did not mention Maupertuis’ new data. Mary Terrall, The man whoflattened the earth: Maupertuis and the sciences in the enlightenment (Chicago, 2002).

78 Terreros (note 1), VIII, 134: ‘Las ultimas observaciones hechas en America y en Lapona aseguran quela Tierra es chata por los Polos y senalan la diferencia que hay de terreno entre el grado contiguo a laEquiccnocial y el contiguo al Polo. Veanse las Obras dadas a luz sobre este asunto.’

79 Morvilliers claimed that the contribution of Spain to European thought was null. Agustı Nieto-Galan, ‘The image of science in modern Spain. Rethinking the ‘polemica’’, in The sciences in the Europeanperiphery during the Enlightenment, edited by Kostas Gavroglu (Dordrecht, 1999), 73�94.

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arguments against negative foreign views of their country. However, some readers felt

that Terreros should have said more. A reader’s note in the margin criticized Pluche’s

treatment of the so-called Catholic Monarchs, Isabel of Castile and Fernando of

Aragon, who financed Columbus’ voyages of discovery. The reader claimed that

Terreros should have included a note of rectification.

But along with accurate information about the latest scientific expeditions,

Terreros also included a new engraving of the fabulous Manucodiata (or Bird of

Paradise). In a long footnote, he explained its marvelous features, such as the hole in

its back for hatching eggs or its two large appendix like ropes instead of legs to tight

up in the trees (Figure 7). He presented himself and other members of the Jesuit order

as testimonies of its true existence.80 Terreros also quotes other Spaniards, such as the

mathematician Tomas Vicente Tosca (1651–1723), and the physician Martı Martınez

(1684–1734). Other important sources are Jesuit authors: Christian Rieger (1714–

1780), Juan E. Nieremberg (1595�1658), Claude-Francois Milliet Dechales (1621–

1678) and Louis B. Castel (1688�1757).81 Precisely, Terreros mentions the theories of

Castel about the nature of light and the origin of colours against Newton’s

corpuscular theory, which was defended by Pluche.82

Finally, I want to stress that Terreros always qualified Pluche’s derogative

opinions about Scholastic or Aristotelian philosophy.83 A Jesuit could not admit

these criticisms. Interestingly, some of the Spanish commentators of Le Spectacle

stressed its religious and pious character. Julian y Carrera’s censura, for example,

spoke of the abbe Pluche by saying that ‘he is not an Aristotelian philosopher, nor a

Cartesian, or Gassendist, Newtonian, Sceptic or Experimental. He is merely a

Christian Philosopher’.84 In Feijoo’s words, the Espectaculo included ‘as much

Physical Science as Moral and Theological instruction, [. . .] because the pious author

mixed the description of the Wonders of Nature with very useful reflections that lead

the reader to admire and love its Author’.85 Therefore, for educated Spanish

eighteenth-century audiences, and educated audiences elsewhere, there was no

80 This engraving was erased in the third and fourth editions, although the long footnote remained.81 For detailed studies of the sources in Terreros’ dictionary, see Eduardo Jacinto,‘Terminologıa y au-

toridades cientıfico-tecnicas en el Diccionario Castellano (1786–93) del P. Terreros’, in Esteban Terreros yPando: vizcaıno, polıgrafo y jesuıta: III Centenario, 1707–2007 edited by Santiago Larrazabal (Bilbao,2009). For medical terms, see Bertha Gutierrez, ‘El lexico de la medicina en el diccionario de Esteban deTerreros y Pando’, in Actas del III Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Espanola edited byAlegrıa Alonso, 2 vols (Madrid, 1996), II, 1327�1342.

82 Terreros (note 1), VI, 61.83 Pluche commented that ‘the Aristotelian and corpusculists are always ready to argue about the

vacuum or the plenum, or matter and form [. . .], and all in truth without much fortune and withoutdeciding anything.’ ‘Los aristotelicos y corpusculistas estan siempre prontos para disputar acerca del llenoo del vacıo, de la materia y de la forma [. . .] y todo a la verdad sin mucho fruto y sin liquidar cosa alguna’.And Terreros qualified that: ‘All of this is understood by exercising without the moderation we have notedabove’. ‘Todo esto se entiende ejecutando sin la moderacion que dejamos notada arriba’.

84 Terreros (note 1), Aprobacion del Lic. Don Blas Julian y Carrera, Presbıtero, 4: ‘[. . .] y esta la quemerecio su Sabio Autor el renombre de Philosopho Christiano, mas apreciable que el de Aristotelico,Cartesiano, Gasendista, Neutoniano, Exceptico o Experimental’. And he added that there was anadvantage in examining all of those systems in order to choose the right one: ‘As well as the advantage ofexamining all of these systems and only admitting those that most conform to the truth, those that moststimulate virtue, those that most serve Religion’.

85 Feijoo (note 9): ‘Esta Obra del Espectaculo de la Naturaleza, que no incluye menos de instruccionMoral, y Teologica, que de ciencia Fısica, sirve grandemente a la edificacion de los Lectores; porque supiadoso Autor, el Abad Pluche, en la rica coleccion, que presenta de las Maravillas de la Naturaleza,oportunamente mezcla utilısimas Reflexiones, que conducen el espıritu a la admiracion, y amor delsapientısimo, y beneficentısimo Autor de ella’.


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contradiction between modern cosmology and experimental philosophy and their

teaching and the Catholic faith*at least not as practised by Pluche and Terreros.

4. ConclusionsTerreros held a remarkable position in the Spanish political and intellectual scene.

He was a professor of mathematics and experimental physics in two Jesuit institutions

founded and generously supported by the crown. These were important elements of

the newly arrived Bourbon dynasty’s reformist agenda. To preserve the royal favour

and to ensure social support, the Jesuits had to convince the Crown and their clients

of the usefulness of their activities. In particular, in carefully prepared performances

the Jesuits conveyed the message that experimental philosophy and a measure of

practical knowledge were appropriate for their pupils’ polite education. In turn, these

were necessary for the kingdom’s improvement and had to conform to the Catholic

faith.In that context, Terreros set out to translate the Spectacle. Given his position

within the most prized teaching institutions of the Spanish crown, Terreros did not

miss the opportunity to use the translation to launch a spirited defence of Spain’s

contributions to culture and science, and particularly to the study of everything

concerning American flora, fauna and geography. As was to be expected, Ulloa’s and

Juan’s European reputation, grounded on their widely known contributions, became

in Terreros’s hands a substantial argument to bolster Spain’s philosophical and

technological status. Terreros challenged foreign attempts to construct an image of

backwardness and isolation of a country that had been a world power by 1600 but

was no longer so after the international treatises that put an end to the Spanish War

of Succession (1700�1714).Moreover, because of his position both in the educational spheres and in polite

society, Terreros could add a layer of meaning to Pluche’s Spectacle that was not

readily apparent in the original. In the preface, Terreros claimed that artisans,

peasants, gardeners, shepherds, merchants, sailors, etc. may profitably use the

Espectaculo to improve their arts. In Spain, the Spectacle deliberately focused on

the practical. In particular, Terreros recorded every provincial name, both in

natural history and in the crafts. He also compared different techniques in Spain

and France, which occasionally allowed him to suggest technical improvements.

The fact that he linked Pluche’s translation with his compilation of a dictionary of

the arts and sciences, along with his efforts to add innumerable notes on Spanish

varieties, products and techniques, strongly supports the thesis that Terreros

effectively constructed Pluche’s work as a competent tool for modernizing the

country. To name and classify was a general priority in the agenda of the European

Enlightenment*one that was acutely felt in Spain. Given Spain’s low rate of

literacy and social development, Terreros could not expect the rank and file

craftsmen and practitioners of the collectives he addressed in his preface to be able

to directly read El espectaculo de la naturaleza. On the other hand, he was

undoubtedly aware of the many ways in which the learned elites, parish priests,

artisan masters and learned officials could benefit from his translation. Terreros’

translation highly suggests a close link between the educational spheres, represented

by Terreros and the Seminario de Nobles, and the artisan practices in the

construction of local experimental knowledge.

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Terreros’ translation of Le Spectacle de la nature opened the way to discuss and

teach controversial issues*such as attraction, the Copernican system, hermaphrodite

reproduction, or spontaneous generation*in a country in which intellectual

discussions were shaped by the Inquisition’s vigilant eye. Through Christian natural

theology, and through Terreros’ cautious comments on Scholasticism, Pluche’s (and

Terreros’) heated defence of experimental philosophy reached the Spanish public.

The public in the court milieu also included women. Terreros dedicated his

translation to the Queen and encouraged women to read it. Linked to women’s

education was a rhetoric of patriotic and moral goals. Useful reading not only kept

women away from harmful occupations but also prepared them better to contribute

to public happiness. The way Terreros stressed (in comparison to Pluche’s text) the

improvement of knowledge related to arts and crafts and to women’s education goes

a long way to explaining the specific pedagogical tone of the Spanish version of Le

Spectacle de la nature.

The history of science in peripheral countries has particularly benefited from

recent historiography that emphasizes ‘the centrality of processes of movement,

translation, and transmission’, as Secord put it in 2004.86 According to this view, the

history of science is mainly the history of knowledge on the move (or ‘knowledge in

transit’). The Spectacle de la Nature has proved to be a rich material to explore how

and why knowledge moves from centres to peripheries, from metropolis to provinces,

as dipoles in constant processes of appropriation.

The very notion of scientific periphery has come under close scrutiny in recent

years.87 I largely agree that the meaning of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ must be carefully

qualified. On the other hand, it seems to me that the appropriation of Pluche’s

Spectacle within the eighteenth-century Spanish context tells us something important

about the different patterns of communicating science prevailing in Spain as

compared to those prevailing in other European countries, particularly in Britain

and France and perhaps closer to other peripheral countries.

The Spanish construction of Pluche substantially differed from the French and

English with respect to targeted audience, contents and goals. In Spain, Pluche’s work

targeted audiences (women, rich landowners, learned craftsmen) that were not central

to the work’s diffusion in France and England. It is particularly interesting to note

the crucial role that Terreros sought for the learned elites as mediators between the

book and the common people. This reflects different standards of literacy as well as

differences in the structure of book trade and book production, but also in the

political role of the scientific book. Moreover, Terreros’ translation took up the

notion (to deny it, to be sure) of Spain’s backwardness as compared to ‘more

advanced’ countries. In the work of Terreros ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ were actor’s

categories*rather than anachronistic constructions*that powerfully shaped his

contribution.

86 James Secord, ‘Knowledge in transit’, Isis, 95 (2004), 642–672.87 Josep Simon and Nestor Herran (eds.), Beyond borders. Fresh perspectives in history of science (Ne-

wcastle, 2008). Kapil Raj, Relocating modern science: circulation and the construction of knowledge in SouthAsia and Europe, 1650�1900 (Houndmills and New York, 2007), Faidra Papanelopoulou, Agustı Nieto-Galan and Enrique Perdiguero, Popularizing science and technology in the European periphery, 1800–2000.(Aldershot, 2009), 237–241; Lisa Koerner, Linnaeus: Nature and nation (Cambridge, Mass., 2001); idem,‘Women and utility in the Enlightenment science’, Configurations, 3.2 (1995), 233�255.


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Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Prof. Agustı Nieto-Galan for his guidance and critical review. I

also thank the CEHIC (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) and my colleagues

there for fruitful discussions. I am especially thankful to Prof. Xavier Roque foroffering his support and encouragement. My deepest thanks go to Oliver Hochadel

who tireless helped me with the English. Iris Montero guided me in natural history

iconography and Professor Lissa Roberts generously read the manuscript. Professor

Pedro Alvarez de Miranda provided me with crucial information about Terreros. I am

extremely grateful to all of them. I am also much indebted to Prof. Antoni Malet for

so generously giving me his time, thoughtful advice and sharp criticism. Finally, I

should also wish to thank Andrea Immel and the staff of the Cotsen Children’s

Library at Princeton University Library, the Cambridge University Library and theBiblioteca de Catalunya and the Instituto de Estudios Vascos (Universidad de Deusto)

for their helpful assistance. The Biblioteca de Catalunya has generously granted

permission for the reproduction of images. The Spanish Ministerio de Educacion

granted me a three months visiting student fellowship at Cambridge University in

2010. My research has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion

project HAR2009-12918-C03-02 and by the Catalan AGAUR project SGR2009-887.

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The Spectacle de la Nature in Eighteenth-Century Spain: From French Households to Spanish Workshops

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Transcript of The Spectacle de la Nature in Eighteenth-Century Spain: From French Households to Spanish Workshops