Rebecca Ford

Contact

• workRoom B30b Trent
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 8468669
• rebecca.ford@nottingham.ac.uk

Expertise Summary

My research interests include the following areas: Enlightenment thought and literature; the Encyclopédie; eighteenth-century science (especially mineralogy); d'Holbach; Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and his correspondance.

Research Summary

As well as continuing my research into mineralogy in Enlightenment France, I am involved with the Bernardin de Saint-Pierre correspondance project, which is working on an electronic edition of the… read more

Recent Publications

• 2011. Common Sense, Common Place? 'Bon sens' and the Encyclopédie. In: JOOP W. KOOPMANS and NILS HOLGER PETERSEN, eds., Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period: Legitimation of Authority Peeters.
• 2010. Une correspondance amicale: Bernardin et Mesnard de Conichard. In: CATRIONA SETH and ERIC WAUTERS, eds., Autour de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Les écrits et les hommes des lumières à l'empire Presses des Universités de Rouen et du Havre.
• 2009. Reading Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Letters and the Book of Nature Nottingham French Studies: Enlightenment and Narrative. 48(3),
• 2008. Images of the Earth, Images of Man: The Mineralogical Plates of the Encyclopédie. In: LOUISE LYLE and DAVID MCCALLUM, eds., Histoires de la terre: Earth Sciences and French Culture Rodopi.

• View all publications

Current Research

As well as continuing my research into mineralogy in Enlightenment France, I am involved with the Bernardin de Saint-Pierre correspondance project, which is working on an electronic edition of the entirety of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's correspondance (much of which has never previously been published) to be published through the Voltaire Foundation's Electronic Enlightenment website.

Past Research

My PhD thesis on the Encyclopédie looked at the place and function of mineralogy in the Encyclopédie and especially at the role of the baron d'Holbach, principal Encyclopédie contributor on mineralogy (as well as author of radical articles on religion), key materialist philosophe and translator and disseminator of much German and Swedish knowledge of mineralogy.

Future Research

Drawing on the research developed in my thesis, I am interested in exploring the involvement in mineralogy and related industries among Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the growing diversification and development of different branches of science in eighteenth-century France.

• 2011. Common Sense, Common Place? 'Bon sens' and the Encyclopédie. In: JOOP W. KOOPMANS and NILS HOLGER PETERSEN, eds., Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period: Legitimation of Authority Peeters.
• 2010. Une correspondance amicale: Bernardin et Mesnard de Conichard. In: CATRIONA SETH and ERIC WAUTERS, eds., Autour de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Les écrits et les hommes des lumières à l'empire Presses des Universités de Rouen et du Havre.
• 2009. Reading Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Letters and the Book of Nature Nottingham French Studies: Enlightenment and Narrative. 48(3),
• 2008. Images of the Earth, Images of Man: The Mineralogical Plates of the Encyclopédie. In: LOUISE LYLE and DAVID MCCALLUM, eds., Histoires de la terre: Earth Sciences and French Culture Rodopi.
• DAVIES, S. and FORD, R., eds., 2007. Correspondence between Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Mesnard de Conichard. ASTBURY, K. et al, eds. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Correspondence Project, Electronic Enlightenment Oxford: Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
• The Encyclopedie in 1759: Crisis and Continuation. In: SHAUN REGAN, ed., Reading 1759: Synchronic Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literary Culture Bucknell University Press. (In Press.)
• Correspondance of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Letters of Julie de La Berliere Electronic Enlightenment Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
• Correspondence of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Letters of Guillebon Le Pesant de Boisguilbert Electronic Enlightenment Oxforf University Press. (In Press.)
• Correspondence of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Letters of Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de Saint-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis Electronic Enlightenment Oxford University Press. (In Press.)