Le projet d’édition des Géoponiques par François de Neufchâteau : un traité agronomique byzantin dans la France impériale de 1807

Abstract

This article deals with the proposal to edit in French the Geoponica, issued by François de Neufchâteau in 1807, when he was president of the Society of Agriculture of Paris, in a document which I found in the National Library in France. This proposition, based on the Greek manuscript attributed to Constantine VII, would be a major scientific and editorial achievement, but it would also entail political issues, as it would respond to the dynastic evolution of the Napoleonic régime. This interest in Byzantine literature is uncommon but can be linked to the growing interest in the Orient and its past, which is an important aspect of the French imperial society under Napoléon. Those elements reveal the historical and scientific implications of such a proposition to edit a Byzantine text, a proposition that would remain unsuccessful, however.