| Titre | La noblesse de la monarchie des Habsbourg au cœur de la République des lettres européenne : le cas de la relation entre Windischgrätz et Condorcet | |
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| Auteur | Martina Ondo-Grecenkova | |
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Revue | Revue des Etudes Slaves |
| Numéro | Vol. 78, no 4, 2007 Les noblesses dans l'empire des Habsbourg | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Les noblesses dans l'empire des Habsbourg de la Montagne Blanche au Printemps des peuples (1620-1848) Articles |
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| Page | 451-467 | |
| Résumé anglais |
The Nobility of the Habsburg Monarchy at Heart of the European Republic of Letters: The Case of the Relation Between Windischgrätz und Condorcet
Josef Mikuláš count Windischgrätz (1744 to 1802), a man of science and philosopher of the Enlightenment, was the descendent of a venerable noble family residing in Bohemia since the 16th century. At the turn of years 1784/1785 he announced a prize for solving the problem how to improve the legal acts by means of political arithmetic, which was a topical method in those days. Such a project stimulated a broad intellectual correspondence among the scientists and statesmen from different countries.
Over the years 1785 to 1789 some fifty persons from all Europe (and even from all over the 'world') joined this project, for instance Richard Price and the knight Banks from the London Royal Society, Adam Smith from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the permanent secretary of the Berlin Academy Jean Henri Samuel Formay and the mathematician La Grange from the same scientific society, then Carmer, chancellor of the king of Prussia, professor of law at the University of Basel d'Annone, then Jean Marie Lampredi, professor at the University in Pisa, members of the French Academy of Sciences Condorcet, Duséjour, Borda, Lapiace, the abbé de Rochon, the German philosopher Frédéric-Henri Jacobi, Joseph Mader, the future professor of statistics at the Prague University, the Belgian mathematician count Nieuport or the ministers of Joseph II, Cobenzel and Karel Zinzendorf. Even Benjamin Franklin took part and mediated the propagation of the project in America. Thus the idea of Windischgrätz stimulated a wide correspondence network, which interconnected Paris, Brussels, Prague, Vienna, London, Edinburgh, Basel, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Magdeburg, Strasburg, Pisa, St. Petersburg and smaller localities like Tachov or St. Nicholas of Liptov. Participating in this network were not only individual persons but also the well known scientific institutions of that time: the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society in Edinburgh, the University of Basel, the Academy of Berlin.
Windischgrätz made the most ample correspondence with the mathematician Condorcet. Besides the political arithmetic they used to discuss the issues of political economy, universal language, enlightened constitutional reforms, exchanged information on political and cultural events in France and in the Habsburg monarchy and exchanged the literature of Enlightenment. This correspondence is significant for the history of science and administration, the cultural and intellectual history and as a document of mutual perception. It is also important for the study of the elite and nobility of the Habsburg monarchy and its integration into the European intellectual community. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | https://www.persee.fr/doc/slave_0080-2557_2007_num_78_4_7106 |
