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The Mediterranean of Louis XV 239
stations on divers Mountains and eminent places of that Country’.
11 Earlier observations made by the mathematician and
astronomer John Greaves (1602–52) at Constantinople and
Rhodes had already begun to erode confidence in ancient geographic
texts and specifically the latitudes of sites provided by
Ptolemy. The case of Rhodes was particularly troubling, since,
as Greaves pointed out: ‘it may be presumed, that, having been
the Mother, and Nurse of so many Eminent Mathematicians,
and having long flourished in Navigation, by the direction of
these, and by the vicinity of the Phœnicians, they could not be
ignorant of the precise Latitude of their Country, and that from
them Ptolemy might receive a true Information.’ 12 Based on his
own measurement of the latitude of Rhodes (378 50’), Greaves
was forced to conclude that the Hellenistic geographer erred by
almost two degrees in his estimate (368).
The utility of this kind of work and the merit of the instructions
published by the Royal Society were self-evident. Boyle’s
‘General Heads’ were translated into French and expanded by
the publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard as an ‘Essai d’instructions
pour Voyager utilement’, included in his Recueil de Voyages au
Nord (1715–27). 13 Bernard claimed that the ‘science de voyager’
required such a broad range of knowledge that no one individual
could hope to encompass all relevant disciplines. Among these,
he included natural history, astronomy, geography, hydrography,
philosophy, and commerce. He criticized most published
travel accounts for their contradictions and lack of precision. His
collection of voyages was intended to correct these faults and the
list of instructions was supplied to guide the ‘voyageur curieux,
& philosophe’ in making reliable observations. His first demand
11 G. Wheler, A Journey into Greece (London, 1682), preface.
12 ‘An account of the Latitude of Constantinople, and Rhodes, written by
the Learned Mr. John Greaves, sometime Professor of Astronomy in the
University of Oxford, and directed to the most Reverend James Usher,
Archbishop of Armagh’, Philosophical Transactions no.178 (December 1685),
1298.
13 Recueil de Voiages au Nord, Contenant divers Mémoires très utiles au
Commerce & à la Navigation (Amsterdam, 1715), i. 1–102. A modified version
of this text was published as a ‘Dissertation Contenant des Instructions pour
voyager utilement’ included in the first volume of the 1725–38 edition and is
signed ‘J. F. B.’ Recueil de Voyages au Nord (Amsterdam, 1731), i. pp. xliii–
cxliv.