Musis Borealibus : science boréale et discours sur le Nord, 1620-1720

The article explores the technoscientific ambitions of an overlooked movement within Swedish history at the end of the Great Northern War. This movement, which the author calls “new boreal science”, roughly lasted from 1710 to 1720. The article explores its semantics, networks, goals and pioneers, and contextualises it within broader discourses on the North during the period 1620-1720. In this way, the article shows how the development of Swedish practical science became inseparable from a rich set of neo-Latin discourses on the North, supported by gothicist-rudbeckian historiography. Both wished to challenge long-lasting narratives about Scandinavia as an uncivilized, barbaric periphery, in favour of a bold revisionist narrative which placed Sweden at the centre of Western civilization. The article provides an overview of these discourses and shows how they pictured the North as a new abode for knowledge brought by the “Boreal Muses”. More broadly, the article highlights the interdependance of discourses on the North and Swedish science during the Age of Great Power. It also sheds light on overlooked scientific ambitions at the end of the Swedish Empire, and expands current understandings about early modern forms of borealism.