French Botany in the Enlightenment: The Ill-fated Voyages of La Pérouse and His Rescuers

by R.L. Williams, Surendra Kumar Mishra

This volume completes a trilogy meant to be a commentary on the botanophilia that captured the literate public in 18th-century France. Enthusiastic public support for any governmental initiative likely to expand botanical knowledge was an expression of immense curiosity about the natural world beyond Europe. It amounted to a quest for universal knowledge that could benefit all useful knowledge that could improve the human condition in this life.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2003