Jean-Jacques and the Mountains
The Swiss flora
S
witzerland became Rousseau’s
Rousseau collected many alpine species
refuge in 1762, and in Môtiers he
for his herbarium, proudly displaying
began to study its flora with local experts
those he found; he brought many Swiss
who introduced him to the work of the
plant specimens to England in 1766,
great Swiss botanist, Albrecht von Haller
and consulted treatises on the Swiss
(1708-1777). Rousseau was particularly
flora. After returning to France in 1767,
interested in mosses and lichens, which
he collected alpine plants in the eastern
grow abundantly in Switzerland.
part of the country.
“The entire [Neuchâtel] region is
brimming with natural curiosities
that can only be discovered gradually and
where every day these discoveries bring
something new. Here botany has treasures
waiting to be discovered, and often as I look
at this profusion of rare plants around me,
I unfortunately tread on them with the foot
of an ignoramus.”
Rousseau to the Marshal of Luxembourg, 28 January 1763; Correspondance complète, vol. XV
[Banbury: Voltaire Foundation, 1972], p. 115
(Alexandra Cook & Rinske Kuiper, trans.)
J.-J. Rousseau. View of the interior of the room Rousseau occupied
in 1765 on St Peter’s Island in the Lake of Bienne in Switzerland
Drawing by A.-F.-L. de Girardin engraved by N. E. Maurin
Jacquemart-André Museum, Fontaine-Chaalis / © The Art Archive / Gianni Dagli Orti
J. J. Rousseau in Switzerland, persecuted and without refuge
Drawing by F. Bouchot engraved by L.-F. Charon
© akg-images / De Agostini Picture Library
Jean-Jacques and the Mountains
Admiration for
the mountains and
their inhabitants
T
he Swiss landscape had strong
to adopt it, but Rousseau only knew the
political connotations for Rousseau.
Alps and their inhabitants from books.
The mountains, woods, rivers, and pas-
The Switzerland he knew was the canton
tures of Switzerland recalled the way
of Vaud, Lake Geneva, and the Val du
of life of the ideal alpine republic: poor,
Travers (Jura mountains); he declared
egalitarian, and democratic. Rousseau
that the mixture of industry and farming
believed this way of life assured political
in the Suisse romande “exudes liberty
independence, and advised the Corsicans
and well-being”.
“We once found in the Swiss as well the same
character that Diodorus attributes to the
Corsicans : equity, humanity, good faith... each
practiced all the necessary arts in his house; all were
masons, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights... This is how
they, living on their land in the midst of their precipices
and their valleys[,] succeeded in drawing all they needed
from it... desiring nothing beyond that.”
Projet de constitution pour la Corse; œuvres complètes, vol. III
[Paris: Gallimard, 1964], p. 914
(Alexandra Cook, trans.)
The Glacier of Lauteraar
Oil on canvas by C. Wolf, 1776
© Kunstmuseum, Bâle / The Bridgeman Art Library
[Rousseau contemplating the natural beauties of Switzerland]
Engraving by Kirk & Ridley published by Vernor & Hood, 1797
© BGE - Geneva Library, Geneva Iconographic Collection
[Mme de Wolmar and Saint-Preux on the rocks of
Meillerie, Julie, or the New Héloïse]
Drawing by N. Monsiau engraved by P. Trière
© BGE - Geneva Library, Geneva Iconographic Collection
Jean-Jacques and the Mountains
Rousseau and Haller :
a fraught
relationship
R
ousseau admired the works of the
most important Swiss botanist
of the era, Albrecht von Haller (17081777) of Berne. Haller documented
2,486 Swiss species, taking greater
Switzerland as his domain, including
the allies, Geneva, and Neuchâtel. He
rejected Linnaean nomenclature and
classification, and based his work on
ecological principles ; he was particularly interested in mosses and lichens.
Rousseau acquired Haller’s masterpiece, Historia stirpium indigenarum
Helvetiae, shortly after its publication
in 1768, and used it to identify plants.
For his part, Haller disapproved of
Rousseau’s political ideas.
Title page of “Historia stirpium” of Albrecht von Haller, 1768
Rousseau’s annotated copy
© Royal Horticultural Society, London
“I have bankrupted myself with books on Botany, and have resolved not to buy any more;
nevertheless I feel that becoming fond of Alpine Plants, I cannot pass up that of Haller.”
Rousseau to Pierre-Alexandre du Peyrou, 19 December 1768 (Modified from Alexandra Cook (trans.), “Botanical writings” in The collected writings of Rousseau, vol. 8
[Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000], p. 197)
Albrecht von Haller
Oil on canvas by E. Handmann, 1757
© Burgerbibliothek Bern