ABSTRACT
The work of Rollin, Gédoyn, Fourmont, and Caylus demonstrates that understanding the contributions of the Greeks to the arts and sciences in antiquity was a major concern for members of the Académie des Inscriptions in the first half of the eighteenth century, resulting in a new and complex appreciation of the development of ancient knowledge. Moving away from the rhetoric of the Querelle des anciens et des moderns, which polarized discussion of the merits of ancient and modern artists and scholars, members of the Académie des Inscriptions began to study ancient authors on their own terms and opened new fields of inquiry that linked contemporary scientific methods with historical scholarship.
