The Ecole Normale and the education of the scientific élite in 19th­century France, with a study of the Annales Scientifiques de l'ENS

Abstract

As far as the education of scientists is concerned, sometime in the 19th century the French Ecole Normale Supérieur took over the leading, alone role played by the Ecole Polytechnique during the first third of the century. This paper studies three questions related to this institutional mutation. First, it provides quantitative evidence to support the claim that the decades 1830-40 and 1870-80 were the moments'in which significant changes took place in the number of scientist coming out of thé grand écoles. Secondly, it argues that the elitist character and tiny dimensions of the Ecole Normale allowed the ideas of reform of higher education present in the French university since the 1830's to be implemented in this institution. Finally, the paper studies the Annales Scientifiques de l'Ecole Normale Supérieur, the scientific journal founded to highlight the new character of the school as a center of scientific education. The study illuminates two major chang;es overcoming scientific periodicals at that time: their specialization by disciplines and the hierarchy in which they were ranked according to the eminence of the papers they published.