Biersack, M. 2025 Imperial secrecy versus scientific exploration. Nicolas Thiéry de Menonville’s botanical mission to bring cochineal from colonial Mexico to Saint-Domingue. Itinerario 1-25
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Notes: This article deals with the French botanist Nicolas Joseph Thiéry de Menonville who in 1777 went to Oaxaca (Mexico) in search of cochineal. Although cochineal was one of the Spanish Empire’s best-kept secrets, he managed to go there, acquire knowledge about its cultivation from local planters, and smuggle the insects on cacti to Saint-Domingue, where he successfully raised them. The objective of this article is to use Thiéry de Menonville’s mission to examine how European botanists acquired knowledge and species from distant and even closed regions.
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