Découverte et colonisation françaises de la philosophie médiévale (1730-1850)
French discovery and colonisation of medieval philosophy (1730-1850)André-François Boureau-Deslandes (1737), Joseph-Marie Degérando (1804, 1822-1823) and Victor Cousin (1828 onward) have produced the three first reconstructions of medieval philosophy within the context of French secularized historiography. During the Enlightenment, Boureau-Deslandes' endeavour distinguished itself through its critical approach and anti-clerical bent. Diachronism provides the ethnological dimension to the study of the "human spirit". The exoticism that cloaks medieval scholastics in wild barbarian garb is followed by Joseph-Marie Degérando's euphoric exoticism. The first form of medieval scholasticism, dating back to the viith c., portrays "civilisation"'s lethargic state revived by the mingling of peoples in the xith c. Finally, with Victor Cousin, the Middle Ages become French and "modern". The exotic trend gives way to the colonisation of the past. Two historiographical elements are of crucial importance within the slow induction of medieval philosophy into French history of philosophy : The Arabs and Abelard. The Arabs are the "other" to Latin or European scholasticism. Abelard is quite the opposite : he is the very heart of the French Middle Ages invented by philosophical historiography at the beginning of the xixth c. as national cultures and identities rose to prominence. This also traces the history of progressive institutionalisation. If Deslandes concerned himself with the high-brow society of his time, Cousin formulated a political and cultural programme for the French University. Significant reconfigurations of historiographical procedures accompany this migration of socio-institutional contexts.