The project aims at scrutinizing the content of six substantial German travel accounts dating from 1685 to 1723, the only hitherto known from the baroque era in which profound and reasoned judgements and opinions on French art and architecture have been rendered. These manuscripts and printed documents out of German public collections are partly unpublished and have never been investigated as a whole. The project will make them available in a richly commented and comfortably (re-)searchable digital portal, aiming at a multi-layered linkage of textual and iconographical ressources. Hence, the ambitions of the joint German-French research group are twofold: to merge the knowledge of French specialists on Paris and Versailles under Louis XIV with the acquaintance of their German colleagues with the chosen sources, and to demonstrate the capacities of a computer-based treatment of the texts to generate, for an academic as well as a non-academic public, innovative and reliable ways of questioning and exploring them. The core objective of the project is to contribute to a better understanding of the modes of appreciation of an alien culture in the baroque era. Even if drawn by an inquisitive admiration, German travellers have shown long before the height of the Enlightenment a critical distance towards French art and culture. It has not yet been investigated enough to what extent the contact with French culture contributed to the development of such a faculty of independent judgement, stabilizing (and even reinforcing) inner German schemes of apprehension. Moreover, the sceptical attitude commonly discernible in these documents compared here for the first time seems to have been a fertile soil for the development of a new aesthetic paradigm at the turn of the century. Indeed, artistic eclecticism, which had emerged in the Renaissance, still prevailed. It based judgements on art on the ability of the artist to imitate and, at the best, to emulate universally appraised historical samples. But around 1700, first signs of a loosening of this paradigm became discernible, giving more space to an appreciation of individual achievements and creative genius. The part German travellers to France played in this subversive and emancipatory process will have to be investigated. Also in regard to their literary qualities and linguistic specificities, the texts to be analysed here seem to belong to a transitory period. Research has hitherto held the view that only since the height of the Enlightenment the abilities of the travellers to formulate individual appraisals of art works, implicating a deliberately private and partial point of view, emerged. But even if in the late 17th century the traditional descriptive mode still prevailed, aiming at an allegedly objective and integral account of the art works seen, one already observes a growing ability of the travellers to focus on single aspects following their individual interests, and to express their emotions sensed. It is obvious that the travel accounts constitute precious factual sources too. They will not only help to better understand the appearance of numerous buildings and their interior decorations modified or destroyed by time, as well as their contemporary uses and functions. They will also provide information about the accessibility of certain fortifications, palaces, gardens, etc. and the permission to study them. The cross-case analysis of the sources can give precious indications about the personal networks tourists had to mobilise to organise their visits. In conjunction with the scientific investigation, an enriched and interactively searchable bilingual digital scholarly edition of the six sources will be produced via open access. This research portal will be accompanied by a web space for the wider public that will be created on the website of the Palace of Versailles.

Le LabEx Patrima constitue un pôle de recherche et de formation dans le domaine des sciences du patrimoine. Regroupant des spécialistes des sciences humaines et sociales, des sciences de l’information et des sciences physico?chimiques et du vivant, il réunit laboratoires de recherche et institutions culturelles autour de projets fédérateurs. La recherche se structure en trois axes : recherche fondamentale (connaissance des patrimoines matériels) ; recherche appliquée (conservation-restauration) ; amélioration de la transmission des connaissances sur les patrimoines. Les universités porteuses du projet viennent abonder le financement apporté par le CGI, de même que les institutions partenaires et d’autres acteurs par le biais du mécénat. L’EquipEx Patrimex, plateforme d’analyses multi-site dédiée au patrimoine, fonctionne en étroite synergie avec Patrima. Les deux projets sont placés sous l’égide de la Fondation des sciences du patrimoine (FSP), créée en 2013. Les appels à projets permettent de financer des bourses de master, des thèses et des post?doctorats et de cofinancer des événements scientifiques et des publications. L’accent est mis sur la formation doctorale : 62 thèses ont déjà été initiées ; 27 ont été soutenues. L’année 2018 a été marquée par la fin du LabEx Patrima et la pérennisation de ses activités au sein de l’EUR Paris Seine Graduate School Humanities, Creation and Heritage. Cette transition s’est accompagnée d’une refonte des statuts de la FSP, dont l’attractivité ne cesse de s’affirmer : deux nouveaux membres nous ont rejoints en 2018 ; d’autres demandes sont en cours d’examen. Le rayonnement international se confirme également, grâce aux outils de financement qui ont été mis en place. La FSP coordonne désormais une initiative de programmation conjointe sur le patrimoine (JPI Cultural Heritage), tandis que le partenariat d’envergure avec les institutions patrimoniales de la province du Shaanxi (Chine) continue à se développer.