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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Querelle épigraphique entre deux savants : l’exemple de la correspondance, publiée dans la Revue archéologique de 1847, entre Antoine-Jean Letronne et Jules Chevrier à propos de deux inscriptions de Bourbon-Lancy (71)

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Although Roman inscriptions have attracted interest since the Renaissance, epigraphy was not acknowledged as a science in its own right, with its own ruleset and methods, until the mid-19th century. Henceforth every newly discovered inscription was duly documented and distributed across an ever-growing and influential network of European scholars, giving birth to an extensive system of scholarly correspondence connecting every individual researcher with the community, from the provincial antiquarian who, as a precursor to « field archaeology », would discover the inscriptions, to the Parisian scholar who would gather and examine every inscription sent his way. One such epistolary intercourse, dealing with two Gallo-Roman inscriptions from Bourbon-Lancy (Burgundy, France), evidences this complex weave of communication with particular clarity. Published in the Revue Archéologique journal of 1847, this correspondence between famous Parisian epigraphist Antoine-Jean Letronne and Jules Chevrier, co-founder of the Vivant Denon museum and of the Archaeological and Historical Society of Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France), provides rearkable insight into the liveliness and richness of mid-19th century scientific exchange.