| Abstrakt: |
In 1774, the French astronomer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (1732-1807) visited the Dutch Republic to plea for a greater role of astronomy in navigation. At that time his Astronomie was translated into Dutch. A handwritten travelogue of his visit is preserved in the Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France in Paris. It is a brief, but fairly complete description of his journey, in which Lalande gives an impression of his visit to the cities, scientists, instrument makers and other - for the greater part - very prominent people of the Dutch Republic. This paper discusses Lalande's experiences in the Netherlands. It shows that Lalande's Voyage de Hollande is a unique testimony, revealing how a foreign scholar experienced the Dutch Republic at the end of the eighteenth century and how he was received as scientific celebrity by the Dutch social upper class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
