In the 2nd session of the 1st cycle of Dialogues between literature and science: the measurement and representation of the world, we will talk about the expedition that the Academy of Sciences of Paris carried out in Ecuador for the measurement of a degree of latitude during the first half 18th century. On the table was the controversy between Newton’s followers, who considered the Earth flattened by the poles, and the defenders of the French posture, who claimed that the flattening was in the equator. The novel theory of gravity faced geodetic measures and Cartesian reasoning defended in Paris.

The expedition was led by the French astronomer Louis Godin along with Charles-Marie de la Condamine, Pierre Bouguer and Joseph de Jussieu. They were accompanied, on behalf of the Spanish crown, by the navy officers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa. Between 1736 and 1739 they established the geodetic network necessary for the measurement of a section of meridian. Between 1739 and 1743 they carried out astronomical measurements at the extremes. Throughout the project the expeditionaries had to face the harshness of the environment and work, they were often misunderstood by the locals. Nor did the important dissensions among the members of the expedition help, which appeared from the beginning and culminated in the return of many of them separately. Others stayed in American lands for having founded family, for finding a job, for not having resources to return or for dying, naturally or violently.

Antonio Lafuente is a CSIC researcher and author of the study Los caballeros del punto fijo: ciencia, política y aventura en la expedición geodésica hispanofrancesa al virreinato del Perú en el siglo XVIII (1987), pioneer in the analysis of the expedition cited and, in general, of the institutionalized scientific development from the century of the lights.

Juan Vergara is the author of the novel Meridiano Maldito (2011), finalist, in the narrative section in Spanish, in the XV edition of the literary prizes Ciutat de València.

The dialogue will be moderated by the GEHC member Joan Capdevila.

The session will take place next Wednesday, November 13, at 7:00 pm, at the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (Palacio de los Virreyes; Carrer dels Comtes, 2; Barcelona).

The entrance is free with pre-inscription to direccion_aff.barcelona@correo.gob.es