Article ID: CBB600182325

Rousseau's Herbaria: Leaves of Self, Books of Nature (2021)

unapi

In this essay, I examine Rousseau's surviving herbaria as a unique archive of his real botanical practices. The introduction briefly sets up Rousseau's botanizing in the context of his late life writing and philosophical thought, especially in the Rêveries. I contrast two of the herbaria, one addressed to a man and one to a woman, so as to draw out how these herbaria are ordered and the kinds of knowledge collection they involve, including their implications for Rousseau's views on gender and education. I argue that the herbaria's organization is connected to the principles of the natural history cabinet, stressing the "curious" and "agréable" qualities of the plants and drawing on the concept of the microcosm and its closely related rhetorical twin, synecdoche; these ideas were key to the Wunderkammer, which itself bridged aesthetic ideals and erudition.

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Authors & Contributors
Cook, Alexandra
Rose, Edwin
van Andel, Tulemore Ruth
Régine Fabri
Samuel Gicquel
Abele, Celia
Concepts
Botany
Herbarium; herbaria
Philosophy
Biological specimens
Natural history
Collections
Time Periods
18th century
Enlightenment
19th century
17th century
20th century, early
Places
Jamaica (Caribbean)
Sicily
Scotland
France
Europe
Great Britain
Institutions
Natural History Museum (London, England)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
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