Organologie et muséologie
Résumé
In 1793 the National Convention planned the establishment of a cabinet of ancient and modern, national and foreign, musical instruments, each perfect of its type and therefore capable of serving as a model. Five years later, when opening the first National Exposition of Industrial Products, François de Neufchâteau recognised it as stimulus to emulation and therefore improvement, given that the event was intended as a didactic exercise and an opportunity which provided draftsmen/artists with a "dazzling occasion to make themselves known". Fifty years later, the first historical studies of the making of musical (notably by Adolphe Le Doulcet, Comte de Pontécoulant, and by Constant Pierre) can undoubtedly be seen in this double perspective. They occur not only at a time when collections of ancient instruments where flourishing but also coincided with the foundation of the first Museum of Instruments in Paris, which was striving to define both the theory behind its collection and the conception of history which inspired it.