Abstract

D’Alembert corresponded with some of the greatest mathematicians of his time, Leonhard Euler, Gabriel Cramer, and Joseph Louis Lagrange. This correspondence sheds light on the scientific controversies and epistemological issues of the day. It also clarifies the organization of the academic world in the middle of the eighteenth century, despite its lacks and losses. It allows us to determine the precise various statuses of a “letter,” from the most public to the very private. We will question the relevance of a network epistolary representation, by inserting mathematical problems into the context of other forms of scientific communication: published treatises, academic reports, periodicals, and the Encyclopédie, the main medium for D’Alembert’s work and for the Enlightenment. We will then focus on the relationships between Euler and D’Alembert, inserted into the overlapping of Paris-Berlin antagonisms and alliances.