Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Geneva scientist and naturalist, who in the late 18th century played a decisive role in the birth of modern mountaineering and especially in the conquest of Mont Blanc. Born in 1740 in Conches, near Geneva, to a family originally from Lorraine but who had emigrated to Switzerland a century earlier following the Wars of Religion, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure immediately revealed a brilliant intelligence, which enabled him to complete his university studies at only 19 years of age with a dissertation on the physics of fire. Three years later, he obtained a chair in natural philosophy at the same university: the 'Académie'. Already in 1760, the young scholar travelled for the first time to Chamonix, not far from his native Geneva, and, thunderstruck by the idea of one day being able to climb Mont Blanc, he had a notice posted in all the parishes in the valley in which he promised a considerable reward to anyone who discovered the way up the great mountain. At the age of 25, he married Albertine Boissier, a very happy choice, both because it was, it seems, a true love marriage (which was anything but common at the time, especially among the upper classes), and because the young lady in question was a true heiress. But as his uncle said: 'Bénédict has two lovers, his wife and the mountain: I don't know which he is more in love with!'. He then began a long period of studies and travels, which took him from Sicily to England: he climbed Mount Etna; in Rome he had a brief meeting with Pope Clement XIV; he crossed the Brenner Pass, but his favourite field of exploration remained the Mont Blanc massif, which he studied from every side. In 1784, he attempted to reach the Aiguille du Goûter. In 1786 he was among the first to be informed of Jacques Balmat and Dr Gabriel Paccard's victorious attempt (not least because there was always the matter of the reward at stake). The following year, de Saussure gave up his professorship in order to prepare his feat first from a scientific point of view by taking barometric measurements at sea level, and then by transporting himself to the mountains. On the morning of 3 August, he crowned his dream of reaching the summit of Mont Blanc, thanks mainly to the collaboration of numerous guides and servants. Over the next 27 days, he managed to write his famous report, print it, propagate it and put it on sale with great success - talk about Swiss efficiency! The outbreak of the French Revolution caught him in Macugnaga, at the foot of Monte Rosa. Back home, he played some part in the new governments that succeeded each other during the turbulent years of the late 18th century. 1794 found him undermined in health and finances, so much so that he retired to the country, to his birthplace in Conches, just in time to avoid being involved in the so-called period of the Terror, which was also unleashed in Geneva. In 1795, word spread that the illustrious scientist was now in a state of sheer destitution, so that a competition of solidarity began to offer him jobs: even President Jefferson offered him a professorship at the University of Charlotteville, Virginia. But the human parable of the inspirer of the conquest of Mont Blanc was already nearing its end, which came on 22 January 1799. He was buried with full honours in the Plainpalais cemetery.
Literary work
In the field of Alpine literature, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure is remembered for his monumental work Voyages dans les Alpes (Travels through the Alps): 2300 pages divided into 4 volumes. They collect observations made during some thirty years of exploration of the Alps and, while they are obviously outdated from a scientific point of view, they remain rich in interesting ethnographic, toponymic and historical information. "We are thus left with a wonderful Travel Book, the finest of the 18th century, in which one can feel the hand of the true writer. We can say that of all those who wrote at that time on Mont Blanc and, more generally, on the Alps (professional writers and perhaps poets) de Saussure has always seemed to us the most interesting and the most inspired'. (Franco Fini, Mont Blanc, two hundred years, Bologna 1989, p. 20).
The scientist and the inventor
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure was first and foremost a naturalist, who observed nature and sought to extract its secrets. To do this, he used the instruments of the time, to which he added some of his own invention: first and foremost, the hair hygrometer, for measuring the moisture content of the air. Thanks to his observations on what he called the 'physique du feu' (the physics of fire) he developed a heliothermometer, of which no prototype has survived, but which from the technical descriptions resembled a modern solar panel. In fact, it used multiple panes of glass, a black background for greater absorption (a principle discovered by de Saussure himself) and a thermal insulator. An enthusiastic supporter of the Mongolfier studies, he was the first to determine that the prodigious rise of the balloons was not due to the properties of the fumes that filled them, but to the different density of hot air compared to cold air.
Art and Industry
In 1776, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and the watchmaker Louis Faizan founded the 'Société des Arts' (Society of the Arts), with the aim of promoting research in the field of watchmaking, but also the fine arts, so much so that towards the end of the 18th century, the Society created the 'Ecole des Beaux-Arts' (school of fine arts). This association still exists today and promotes painting and sculpture competitions, as well as exhibitions in the famous 'palais de l'Athénée', which the banker Jean-Gabriel Eynard had built in 1861 to house the activities of the Société des Arts.
Pedagogy
A man of science that he was, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure could not fail to criticise the school system in force in his time, the 'Collège', corresponding to our state school. When it was created, in full Calvinist rigour, it was intended to create good literates and trained clergymen. Obviously, all those students who were more inclined to artistic, scientific and commercial-technical subjects were penalised. He was therefore a proponent of a school reform that favoured public structures, which were more egalitarian and therefore more educative for young people. The teaching method revalued direct observation of problems and interdisciplinarity. The school had to make use of new means, such as maps, scientific instruments, material samples, machinery and dictionaries. All provided free of charge by the school apparatus financed by the state or by wealthy philanthropists.
The ascent of Mont Blanc
Although de Saussure's was only the third repetition of the greatest ascent of the 18th century, it was certainly the one that had the widest echo. Still, it is worth remembering its details, if only to realise how times have changed. Twenty people participated: de Saussure, of course; his personal valet Têtu and 18 guides, who above all had to transport an enormous luggage, composed of massive scientific equipment, but also of objects unimaginable today, such as mattresses, blankets and sheets, a whole wardrobe, an umbrella black veils to shelter from the glare of the sun on the snow, iron poles and short-handled axes, ropes, a huge tent cloth, two writing desks, some books such as tables of logarithms, and then bottles of wine and liquor, pots of pâté with their bread. One did not proceed bound in a rope, but two guides held a pole horizontally: between them, de Saussure leaned on this sort of handrail on one side, while on the other side he held on with an alpenstock. On the other hand, two guides held their client back with a rope passed under his armpits to prevent him from sliding into a crevasse. Finally, it seems that de Saussure did not like the 'too realistic' illustrations that had been made of his feat and demanded that substantial changes be made both to his figure, which was too close to reality (corpulent and no longer youthful), and to the situations depicted, in which he was too obviously dependent on the skill of the guides.
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