Republic of scientists

In Europe, beginning with the late Middle Ages , the first societies of representatives of intelligent professions emerged, which were part of the pan-European guild tradition, and combined the traditions of Latin education inherited from Antiquity and the newly emerging modern European culture. The first literary circles appeared at the Occitan courtyards, as well as in Gennegau , Picardy, and Flanders with Normandy . The oldest scribes guilds existed in Arras (possibly earlier than 1194) and Valenciennes (from 1229); from the end of the thirteenth century, the literary society was also recorded in London . London merchants maintained close relations with the guilds of Arras, but the academic community ceased to exist here in the first decade of the XIV century. New societies emerged in Toulouse (1323), Douai (1330), probably Paris (mid-XIII century), in Tournai , Lille and Amiens (between 1380 and 1390). Only in the XV century, this tradition went through the Netherlands and the Rhineland, and in England these tendencies took root only by the beginning of the XVI century, but the corporation of the London Innovations in the City of London was quite comparable to the Bazoshes . Corporations of scribes and judges received the privileges of organizing theatrical performances and organized poetic tournaments. The urban communes of the 15th — 16th centuries were also interested in cultural activities. All of the above has been superimposed on the appearance of urban academies in Spain and Italy — amateur cultural associations — and received a strong impetus for development after the appearance of humanism in Italy and the invention of typography ^[5] . It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 16th century, literary societies and academies on both sides of the Alps began to form almost simultaneously: the first academies in Siena, Florence and Bologna took shape about 30 years later than the mastersinger corporations in German lands ^[5] .

The prerequisites for the creation of the Republic of Scientists were laid during the Avignon captivity , when the correspondence of the Roman and Avignon offices became regular. In 1384, Jean de Montreux for the first time asked for Coluccio Salutati manuscripts and private and official letters for use in the royal office as samples of the Latin language and style. The invention of printing has made possible a wider acquaintance of European scientists with exemplary Latin and Greek classics. The strongest influence on the formation of international relations by correspondence was played by the Platonov Academy in Florence and the intellectual circle at the House of Alda in Venice, and then this model began to expand Erasmus of Rotterdam , in correspondence from Basel. In France, the center of Latin studies became the Navarre College ^{[6] [7]} .

At the beginning of the 17th century, Nikola-Claude Fabri de Peyresc brought the Republic of Scientists to a new level. According to P. Miller, the activity of Peyresca can be considered “paradigmatic”. Miller linked the origins of the Republic to the late Middle Ages and put Peiresk in one row with Erasmus and Justus Lipsius , who had almost endless connections by correspondence. Speaking about Payresque’s place in this community, the thinker Pierre Beyle at the end of the seventeenth century called him “the prince” and “attorney general” of the Republic ^[8] . Slava Peyreska was entirely based on his correspondence with almost all the outstanding intellectuals of his time. However, unlike its predecessors, in addition to Latin, Peyresc corresponded in living languages, mainly in French and Italian ^[9] .

The “Republic of Scientists” was not only a circle of intellectuals who knew by correspondence, it was also a collective laboratory for developing and testing new knowledge; This knowledge was inseparable from everyday life and was carried out by its bearers. The organizational forms of this community, according to P. Miller, were Italian academies of the 15th — 16th centuries, salons and individual cabinets of scientists of the 17th century, and, finally, scientific and political societies of the 18th century. Social activism was a priority for community members, and was based on a number of key texts that were republished, commented and translated. Peyresk found the beginning of the “style revolution” of the 1620s in Parisian salons , which led to the closure of intellectuals in the circle of pedants, as the heavy pomp and Latin language were pushed back to the periphery of the secular life of the era ^[10] . After the beginning of the publication of Monteni ’s Experiments , contemporaries realized the threat of printed reproduction of friendly messages: the socially colored expression of personal relationships was pushed into the background by the refinement of style and the intricacy of turns ^[11] . The main intellectual centers of Paris of the Louis XIII era were the Dupuis Cabinet and the Hotel Rambouillet . In the Cabinet of Dupuis (a purely male conservative community) Peyresc was during his stay in Paris and after leaving for his small homeland in 1623 remained a corresponding member ^[12] . This community was opposed by the first salon Madame de Rambouillet , which opened after 1620. His style, social composition and goals, according to P. Miller, are perfectly illustrated by Rubens's painting “The Garden of Love ” ^[13] .

The idea of ​​a narrow circle of like-minded friends based on the Seneca's stoical ideal prevailed among humanists from the time of Petrarch . The main form of communication in this community was personal communication; but it could also be carried out in the circle of those who were not members of the respective communities ^[14] . Naturally, such an ideal of the intellectual community was possible only among the aristocracy, which Gassendi directly wrote about, describing Peyrescu's social circle. Friend Peyreska - Italian antiquarian , argued "about the methods by which the wise men of the court and the scribes will be able to assert themselves and not succumb to the temptations of the court." Therefore, among the Republic of scholars spread neostostitsizm , since stoic self-control and self-knowledge seemed the best school of socialization. A model of this kind in practice was developed by Just Lipsius ^[15] .

In the XVI century, the natural science direction in the activities of humanists was represented extremely weakly and occupied a marginal position. Only due to the activity of Peyreska and the Dupuis brothers, the scientific revolution of the 17th century, in social and conceptual terms, was able to obtain a status comparable to humanities ^[16] . Around 1630, the Mersenne Academy was founded - one of the first communities principally aimed at the natural sciences ^[17] . However, until about 1700, scientific activity was also characteristic of social salons. However, by the middle of the 17th century, the organizational form of informal circles ceased to satisfy the scientific community, in part, this was due to the fact that the main structure-forming connections — personal ones — paralyzed the activities of these communities due to career or conceptual conflicts. In 1666, the Paris Academy of Sciences was founded and in parallel with it - the Royal Society in London. In the 1680s – 1690s, radical changes took place, connected both with a sharply unfavorable political situation and a fiasco of the utilitarian model of the development of science, which the creators of the scientific revolution declared. At the same period, there was a change of generations of the intellectual and social elite of European society, and there was a discrepancy between these layers. Under these conditions, the Academy finally turns into a state arbiter of scientific and technical activities, which was secured by the royal patronage of 1699 ^[18] .

Until the end of the 17th century, the only channels of scientific communication and representation were university disputes and typography. Ch. Bazman noted that, for a number of reasons, these institutions tended to isolate themselves and were inadequate to actual scientific practice. Adequate way was realized through scientific correspondence, arising periodicals and informal scientific associations - offices, circles and salons. After the death of Peyresc, the largest scientific correspondence in Europe was carried out by M. Mersenne ^[19] .