https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6084-1798
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ABSTRACT
This article reports on a historical investigation carried out on the conical object MIN000-3519 preserved in the mineralogy collections of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris (France). The mineralogist René-Just Haüy (1743-1822) included this object, cut in a single pyrite (FeS2) crystal, in his working collection with the references ‘Sulphured iron, mirror of the Incas, of Peru, M. de Jussieu’. All of the research lines followed lead the author to Joseph de Jussieu (1704-1779) and his shipments of botanical specimens and various other samples from South America. As a member of the Godin-La Condamine-Bouguer geodesic expedition on the equator (1735-1743), he returned to France only after 36 years (1771), ill, exhausted and dispossessed of the scientific product of his Andean collections. This pyrite mirror is important because, in addition to appearing to be the only archaeological object that can be linked to Joseph's peregrinations in America, it resembles other specimens found at sites of the Cañaris culture (500-1500 AD) in Ecuador. Preserved within the de Jussieu family, this object would presumably have been given to Haüy by Joseph's heirs, his nephews Antoine-Laurent (1748-1836) or Laurent-Pierre (1792-1866), with whom he had close ties.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr Cristiano Ferraris, in charge of the Earth Sciences collections at the MNHN and Mr Jean-Marc Fourcault of the MNHN, for pointing out to me the presence of the ‘Mirror of the Incas’ in Haüy’s collection. I also thank Professor David C. Smith for his help in correcting the English language. This work was financially supported by the UMR-CNRS 7194 HNHP.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Thomas Calligaro, Pierre-Jacques Chiappero, François Gendron and Gérard Poupeau, ‘New clues on the origin of the ‘Inca Mirror’ at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris’, Latin American Antiquity-Report, 30, no. 2 (2019), 422–428 (p. 425) https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.3
2 Antoine Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, L'Histoire naturelle éclaircie dans deux de ses parties principales, la lithologie et la conchyologie dont l'une traite des pierres et l'autre des coquillages (Paris : De Bure l'Aîné, 1742), p. 199 ; Anne Claude Philipe de Caylus, ‘Examen d’un passage de Pline dans lequel il est question de la pierre obsidienne’, in Mémoires de littératures, tirés des registres de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 30 (1764), pp. 457–502 (p. 485) ; Valmont de Bomare, Dictionnaire Raisonné, Universel d’Histoire Naturelle ; contenant l’Histoire des Animaux, des Végétaux et des Minéraux, 9 vols MEA-PIV (Paris : Lacombe, 1764-1775), IV (1775), p. 590 ; Nicolas Jolyclerc, ‘Cours de Minéralogie rapporté au tableau méthodique des minéraux, donné par Daubenton, de l’Institut national de France ou démonstrations élémentaires et naturelle de Minéralogie’ (Paris : Panckouke, 1802), p. 343 ; Louis de Launay, Minéralogie des Anciens, 2 vols (Bruxelles : Weissenbruch, 1803), I (1803), pp. 363–364 ; Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Eugène Patrin et Antoine Libes, Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Histoire naturelle appliqué aux arts, 24 vols (Paris : Crapelet, 1804-08), XXIII (1804), p. 178 ; Cyprien Prosper Brard, Minéralogie appliquée aux arts, 3 vols (Paris : Levrault, 1821), III, pp. 365–366 ; Joseph, Philippe, François Deleuze, Histoire et Description du Muséum Royal d’Histoire Naturelle, 2 vols (Paris : Royer, 1823), II, p. 368.
3 Diego De Landa, Relation des Choses de Yucatan, translate by abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, (Paris : Durand, 1864 [sixteenth century]).
4 Henri-Jean Schubnel, ‘Pierres précieuses, Gemmes & Objets d’art de la Galerie de Minéralogie du Muséum’, in Revue de Gemmologie, numéro Hors-série (Paris : AFG/Fondation de France, 1977), p. 5 ; Henri-Jean Schubnel, Pierre-Jacques Chiappero, Éric Gonthier, Trésor du Muséum, Cristaux précieux, Gemmes et Objets d’Art (Paris : MNHN/Elf Aquitaine/AFG, 1998), p. 31.
5 Mireille Simoni-Abbat, ‘Le miroir de l'Inca’, in La Pierre et l'Homme (Paris : MNHN, 1987), p. 53.
6 Charles-Marie de La Condamine, Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi, à l'Equateur, servant d'introduction historique à la mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien, (Paris : Imprimerie royale, 1751), p. 104, note.
7 Louis Godin, ‘Lettre IX de M. Godin’, in Lettres inédites d’Henri IV et de plusieurs personnages célèbres, (Paris : Tardieu et Sérieys, 1802), pp. 214-217.
8 René Verneau et Paul Rivet, Ethnographie ancienne de l’Equateur. (Mission du Service géographique de l’armée pour la mesure d’un arc équatorial en Amérique du Sud), 10 vols (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1912), VI, 1, p. 208.
9 The term ‘sulphured iron’ was invented by Haüy while Dioscorides in 50 BC already spoke of pyrite. The term pyrite refers to fire, firestone in Latin, because this mineral emits sparks when struck. Pyrite is an iron disulphur (FeS2) which crystallizes in the cubic system, its hardness is from 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale and the species is recognized as valid by the International Mineralogical Association.
10 In 1823, although the Museum's Professors offered 40 to 50,000 francs, Haüy's heirs sold his collection for £4000 (100,000 francs) to the Duke Richard I of Buckingham & Chandos (1776-1839). This mineralogical collection, historically exceptional as a support of the mineral description system, left France for England. It was kept at Stowe Manor in the Buckinghamshire. In 1848, the ruin of Richard II (1797-1861), second Duke of Buckingham & Chandos, led to the sale of all his properties and possessions. Armand Dufrenoy (1792-1857), then director of the École des Mines de Paris (1836-1857) and of the chair of Mineralogy at the MNHN (1847-1857), took advantage of the opportunity to travel to England and acquire the entire Haüy collection (6,000 specimens in the catalogue) for the sum of 320 guineas (12.000 francs). Repatriated to France, this founding collection of the mineralogical discipline, which includes many mineralogical types, is today entirely preserved at the MNHN in Paris. Concerning the history of the ruin of the Dukes of Buckingham & Chandos, see Henry, R. Forster, The Stowe Catalogue priced and annotated (London: Bogue, 1848), p. 268.
11 Mineralogical determination carried out by the Raman technique of spectral analysis at the Analytical Platform of the Musée de l'Homme at Paris.
12 Ibid. note 8, p. 208.
13 René Verneau et Paul Rivet, Ethnographie ancienne de l’Equateur. (Mission du Service géographique de l’armée pour la mesure d’un arc équatorial en Amérique du Sud), 10 vols (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1922), VI, 2, Plate X, Fig.1, 2, 4.
14 Amanda Engineer, Illustrations from the Wellcome Library, Wellcome and ‘The Great Past’, Medical History, 44 (2000), p. 395.
15 Sabine du Crest, ‘Exogenèses et objets-frontières’, in Exogenèses. Objets-frontières dans l’art européen XVIe – XXe siècle, études réunies par Sabine du Crest (Paris : de Boccard, 2018), p. 11.
16 Ibid. note 15, p. 19, note 27.
17 At the end of the 15th century, before falling to the power of the Incas, the city of Ingapirca (Inca wall in Quechua) was named Hatun Cañar (the Great Cañar) and was, from 500 AD, an important ceremonial centre of the Cañaris culture. In its northern expansion, the Inca Empire came up against a coalition led by the Cañaris, who were eventually persuaded to surrender. However, a new revolt led to the massacre of the tribe's elders, killed because they were the custodians of ancestral knowledge, and the deportation of the rest of the tribe to the Cuzco. In order to demonstrate their taking possession of the Cañar country, the Incas modified the urbanism, architecture and the name of Hatun Cañar so that it corresponded to the Inca style and like this it is integrated to the Tahuantinsuyu.
18 In order to monitor the activities of the French scientists of the Godin-La Condamine-Bouguer expedition in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the King of Spain appointed two lieutenants from his Navy, Don Jorge Juan y Santacilia (1703-1773) and Don Antonio de Ulloa de la Torre-Giral (1716-1795).
19 A Spanish pulgada from the old regime was 23.2 mm wide and these mirrors would have measured between 69.6 and 92.8 mm in diameter. On the other hand, the diameter of 1.5 feet or 418 mm (a foot being worth 278.6 mm) seems to me to be exaggerated.
20 Antonio de Ulloa, Voyage historique de l'Amérique méridionale fait par ordre du roi d'Espagne par don George Juan et par don Antonio de Ulloa, 2 vols (Amsterdam & Leipzig : Arkstee et Merkus, 1752), L.VI, Chap. XI, pp. 383-385, 392.
21 Ibid. note 20, Plate XVI, Fig. f, g.
22 The expedition to Lapland (1736-1737) consisted, for its French members, of the mathematician Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713-1765) and the astronomers Charles Etienne Louis Camus (1699-1768), Pierre Charles Le Monnier (1715-1799) and Réginald Outhier (1694-1774). The Swedes appointed the astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744) and the Finnish interpreter Anders Hellant (1717-1789) for the Franco-Sámi translations.
23 In addition to the academicians Louis Godin, Charles-Marie de La Condamine and Pierre Bouguer, the South American expedition was made up, as we have seen, by the botanist Joseph de Jussieu, Jean Séniergues (? -1739) who acted as surgeon and Jean Louis de Morainville (1705-1764), engineer in charge of natural history drawings. There were also three topographers, Jean-Joseph Verguin (1701-1777), a naval engineer, Jacques Couplet-Viguier (? - 1736) who died of yellow fever in Panama, and Jean Godin des Odonnais (1713-1792), cousin of Louis Godin. A watchmaker, Mr Hugot or Hugo (? -?), was responsible for the maintenance of measuring instruments. And in Peru, Pedro Vicente Maldonado y Flores (1701-1748), a young Creole with a passion for astronomy and geography, joined the expedition and took part in triangulation operations. About membres of the geodesic expedition, see Louis Godin, Note autographe : Liste des membres de l’expédition au Pérou et instructions pour le chirurgien et le cuisinier, Archives de l’Institut de France, Académie des Sciences, fonds Charles Marie de La Condamine 14 (1735). And, Roger Mercier, Les Français en Amérique du Sud au XVIIIe siècle : la mission de l’Académie des Sciences (1735-1745), Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer 56, no. 205 (1969), pp. 327–374 (p. 334).
24 Louis Godin's travel relationship was never finished. The academician Grandjean de Fouchy (1707-1788), in his eulogy of the late astronomer, reports having had a first manuscript in his hands, but it was never published and even seems to have disappeared. Jean-Paul Grandjean de Fouchy, ‘Éloge de Monsieur Godin’, in Histoire et Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences (1760), pp. 181–194 (p. 189).
25 Pierre Bouguer, Relation abrégée du voyage fait au Pérou par MM. de l’Académie royale des Sciences, pour mesurer les degrés du méridien aux environs de l’équateur, & en conclure la figure de la terre, HAS, Mém. (1744), pp. 249–298 (p. 277).
26 Charles-Marie de La Condamine, ‘Mémoire sur quelques anciens monumen(t)s du Pérou, du tem(p)s des Incas’, in Mémoires de l’Académie royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Berlin, 2 (1748), pp. 435–456 (p. 438).
27 A memoir by Bouguer, written at the ‘signal of Yassuay on 14 July 1739’ and intended for the Royal Academy of Sciences, accuses Godin of compromising the measurement of the meridian arc by refusing to collaborate with his colleagues. In a signed apostille joined to it, La Condamine declared that he ‘adhered to everything Bouguer wrote’. 8 p. in-fol.
28 Ibid. note 26, pp. 435-456.
29 Ibid. note 20, pp. 382-384.
30 Cayambe is a canton in the province of Pichincha located in the northern Sierra of Ecuador. The site described by Antonio de Ulloa is Puntiatchil, of which little remains today. Puntiatchil was made up of truncated cone-shaped pyramidal buildings, tolas, camellones and agricultural terraces. There were dwellings, ceremonial buildings and agricultural production dating from the Integration Period (800-1500 AD) and attributed to the Caranquis culture. Puntiatchil was also a historical and cultural space of the Cayambis people.
31 Ibid. note 26, p. 441.
32 Ibid. note 20, Plate XVI.
33 Ibid. note 6.
34 Charles-Marie de La Condamine, Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale (Paris : Pissot, 1745), p. 207.
35 Ibid. note 25, p. 104.
36 Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières de Grimoard de Lévis de Caylus, Marquis d'Esternay, Baron de Branzac (1692-1765) is an antique dealer and man of letters. Abandoning his military career to devote his life to the study of the arts, he travelled throughout Europe to study antiquities. He was one of the first aesthetes to consider Archaeology as a science, laying the foundations for the comparative method. First received at the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1731, de Caylus joined the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 1742. From 1729 onwards, he began collecting antiques, and by the time of his death, this collection would be one of the most important in France. Rich of 2890 pieces, it is today preserved in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
37 This chronological detail helps us to situate the arrival of the crate in France after April 22nd 1758, date of Antoine de Jussieu's death, and before 1760, date of the reading of the dissertation about obsidian in front of the Academy by the Count de Caylus.
38 Ibid. note 2, de Caylus, p. 487.
39 Charles Andry, ‘Joseph de Jussieu’, in La Biographie médicale, c’est-à-dire, les vies des médecins célèbres avec des notices de leurs ouvrages, Encyclopédie méthodique, Médecine, 13 vols (Paris : Société de Médecins, 1798), VII, pp. 765–776 (p. 766).
40 Ibid. note 39, p. 768.
41 This description corresponds to the Santa Barbara mine located in the Peruvian District of Mercure.
42 https://zh.mindat.org, [accessed 11 November 2020].
43 Most probably this is the San Antonio de Esquilache silver mine, which is located in the Peruvian Department of Puno, on the southern shore of the Lake Titicaca. Discovered in 1620, it was in active operation during the passage of Godin and de Jussieu.
44 Gaston Lehir, ‘Joseph de Jussieu et son exploration en Amérique méridionale (1735-1769) à partir des sources manuscrites’, (unpublished master’s thesis, Université de Montréal, 1976), p. 40.
45 On the statuts of the "I" in the correspondance of Joseph de Jussieu, see : Nathalie Vuillemin, ‘Un ‘Je’ peut en cacher un autre : statut et construction de l’intimité dans la correspondance de Joseph de Jussieu’, in Philippe Antoine et Vanezia Pârlea (dir.), Voyage et Intimité 6 (Paris : Classiques Garnier, Carrefour des lettres modernes, 2018), pp. 59-72. And Nathalie Vuillemin, ‘Les silences du voyageur : Joseph de Jussieu au Pérou (1736-1711)’, in Dévoiler l’ailleurs. Correspondances, carnets et journaux intimes de voyage, ed. by Laurent Tissot, Patrick Vincent, Jacques Ramseier, (Neuchâtel : Alphil, 2020), pp. 21-34.
46 Ibid. note 39, p. 774.
47 Ibid. note 39.
48 Ibid. note 39, p. 774.
49 Ibid. note 2, de Caylus, p. 457, Fig. c-g.
50 Alfred Lacroix, La vie et l’œuvre de l’abbé René-Just Haüy, Bulletin de la société française de Minéralogie, La célébration du deuxième centenaire de la naissance de l’abbé Haüy 67 no. 1–6 (1944), pp. 15–226 (p. 25-26).
51 Laurent-Pierre de Jussieu, ‘Sur le fer sulfuré blanc’, Journal des Mines 30, no. 178 (1811), pp. 241-253.
52 Ibid. note 50, pp. 181-182.
53 Maurice Rivoire, NAPOLEON, (Paris : Dargaud, collection Les grands de Tous les Temps, 1965), p. 56.
54 Ibid. note 7.