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Books & Archaeology
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Telliamed, Conversation between an Indian philosopher and a French missionary on the shrinking of the sea.
DE MAILLET Benoît.

Telliamed, Conversation between an Indian philosopher and a French missionary on the shrinking of the sea.

Jerome Millon
€25,00 €0,00
N° d'inventaire 29787
Format 24 x 16
Détails 408 p., paperback.
Publication Grenoble, 2023
Etat Nine
ISBN 9782841374083
The title of the Telliamed is an anagram of the name of its author, Benoît de Maillet (1659-1738), a "gentleman of Lorraine" who was French consul in Egypt at the turn of the 18th century, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV and then under Louis XV. The text features an "Indian philosopher" and a "French missionary" conversing in Cairo in 1715. In the guise of the "philosopher," the author defends the thesis of the marine origin of all living beings, and proposes a "theory of the Earth," according to which all continents were originally submerged, the sea, as it diminished, revealing the landscapes, reliefs and plains, rivers and mountains that we see today. Based on the observation of coastal lines, geological layers and the fossils they contain, Maillet's "system" relies on vortex physics borrowed from Descartes and Fontenelle. Beyond the destiny of the Earth, it depicts the history of the planets as an alternation of drying out, conflagrations and new immersions.
The title of the Telliamed is an anagram of the name of its author, Benoît de Maillet (1659-1738), a "gentleman of Lorraine" who was French consul in Egypt at the turn of the 18th century, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV and then under Louis XV. The text features an "Indian philosopher" and a "French missionary" conversing in Cairo in 1715. In the guise of the "philosopher," the author defends the thesis of the marine origin of all living beings, and proposes a "theory of the Earth," according to which all continents were originally submerged, the sea, as it diminished, revealing the landscapes, reliefs and plains, rivers and mountains that we see today. Based on the observation of coastal lines, geological layers and the fossils they contain, Maillet's "system" relies on vortex physics borrowed from Descartes and Fontenelle. Beyond the destiny of the Earth, it depicts the history of the planets as an alternation of drying out, conflagrations and new immersions.