{{Short description|French scholarly journal}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox journal
| title = {{Lang|fr|Journal des sçavans}}
| cover = 1665 journal des scavans title.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| abbreviation=J. Sçavans
| editor =
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| publisher = [[Peeters Publishers]] 
| country = France
| language = French
| frequency = Annual
| history = 1665–1792,<br/> 1797,<br/> 1816–present
| openaccess =
| license =
| impact = 
| impact-year = 
| website = http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/revue/jds
| link2 =
| link2-name =
| JSTOR =
| OCLC = 
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| ISSN =
| eISSN = 1775-383X
}}
The '''{{Lang|fr|Journal des sçavans}}''' (later renamed '''{{lang|fr|Journal des savans}}''' and then '''{{lang|fr|Journal des savants}}''', {{Lit|Journal of the Learned}}), established by [[Denis de Sallo]], is the earliest [[academic journal]] published in Europe. It is thought to be the earliest published scientific journal. It currently focuses on European history and premodern literature.

==History==
The first issue appeared as a twelve-page [[quarto]] [[pamphlet]]<ref>Brown, 1972, p. 368</ref> on Monday, 5 January 1665.<ref>Hallam, 1842, p. 406.</ref> This was shortly before the first appearance of the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]],'' on 6 March 1665.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Partridge|first1=Linda|title=Celebrating 350 years of Philosophical Transactions: life sciences papers|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=370|issue=1666|page=1|language=en|doi=10.1098/rstb.2014.0380|pmid=25750243|pmc=4360128|date=March 6, 2015}}</ref> The 18th-century French physician and [[Encyclopédistes|encyclopédiste]] [[Louis-Anne La Virotte]] (1725–1759) was introduced to the journal through the protection of chancellor [[Henri François d'Aguesseau]]. Its content originally included obituaries of famous men, church history, scientific findings, and legal reports.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Benos |first1=Dale J. |last2=Bashari |first2=Edlira |last3=Chaves |first3=Jose M. |last4=Gaggar |first4=Amit |last5=Kapoor |first5=Niren |last6=LaFrance |first6=Martin |last7=Mans |first7=Robert |last8=Mayhew |first8=David |last9=McGowan |first9=Sara |last10=Polter |first10=Abigail |last11=Qadri |first11=Yawar |date=2007-06-01 |title=The ups and downs of peer review |journal=Advances in Physiology Education |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=145–152 |doi=10.1152/advan.00104.2006 |pmid=17562902}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kronick |first=David A. |date=1990-03-09 |title=Peer Review in 18th-Century Scientific Journalism |journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |language=en |volume=263 |issue=10 |pages=1321–1322 |doi=10.1001/jama.1990.03440100021002 |pmid=2406469}}</ref><ref name="Dibner">{{cite web |title=The Amsterdam printing of the Journal des sçavans |url=http://www.sil.si.edu/libraries/Dibner/newacq_2000.htm |publisher=Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution |date=July 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070111052252/http://www.sil.si.edu/libraries/Dibner/newacq_2000.htm |archive-date=11 January 2007}}</ref> [[Natural philosophy]] was part of its original scope. It is thought to be the first published scientific journal.<ref name="Dibner" />

The journal ceased publication in 1792, during the [[French Revolution]], and, although it very briefly reappeared in 1797 under the updated title {{lang|fr|Journal des savants}}, it did not re-commence regular publication until 1816. From then on, the {{lang|fr|Journal des savants}} was published by the [[National Imprimery]] under the patronage of the [[Institut de France]]. From 1908 to 2020, it was published under the patronage of the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]]. In 2021, the Belgian company [[Peeters (publishing company)|Peeters]] took over publication. It continues to be a leading academic journal in French [[humanities]] scholarship.

==Landmark articles==
[[Ole Rømer]]'s [[Rømer's determination of the speed of light|determination]] of the [[speed of light]] was published in the journal in 1676, which established that light did not propagate instantly. It came to about 26% slower than the actual value.<ref>{{Cite journal
 |first=O
 |last=Rømer
 |author-link=Ole Rømer
 |year=1676
 |title=Démonstration touchant le mouvement de la lumière trouvé par M. Römer de l'Academie Royale des Sciences
 |url=http://www.ffn.ub.es/luisnavarro/nuevo_maletin/Roemer_1676.pdf
 |journal=Journal des sçavans
 |pages=223–36
 |language=French
 |access-date=10 March 2020
 |archive-date=8 September 2022
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220908221513/http://www.ffn.ub.es/luisnavarro/nuevo_maletin/Roemer_1676.pdf
 |url-status=dead
 }} Translated as {{cite journal
 |year=1677
 |title=A Demonstration concerning the Motion of Light
 |url=http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Roemer-1677/Roemer-1677.html
 |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]
 |issue=136
 |pages=893–94
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070729214326/http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Roemer-1677/Roemer-1677.html
 |archive-date=2007-07-29
 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1677.0024
 |volume=12
 |bibcode=1677RSPT...12..893.
 |doi-access=free
 }}</ref>

In 1684 the journal published [[François Bernier]]'s racial theories.<ref name="Bernier">{{cite journal |last=Bernier |first=François |author-link=François Bernier |url=https://archive.org/details/s1id11854760/page/132/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Nouvelle division de la Terre, par les différentes espèces ou race d'hommes qui l'habitent, envoy/e par un fameux voyageur à M. l'Abbé de la Chambre, à peu près en ces termes|journal=Journal des sçavans |issue=12 |pages=133-140 |date=April 24, 1684}}
* Translated in {{cite journal |last=Bendyshe |first=T. |year=1865 |title=A new division of the earth, according to the different species or races of men who inhabit it, sent by a famous traveller to Mons. [l'Abbé de la chambre], nearly in these terms |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsreadbefor01anth/page/360/mode/2up?view=theater |journal=Memoirs Read Before the Anthropological Society of London |volume=1 |pages=360–64}}

https://archive.org/details/s1id11854760/page/132/mode/2up?view=theater

</ref> In 1692, [[Leibniz]] published his first explication of [[Monadology]] in the journal.<ref>R.A. Watson, ''The Downfall of Cartesianism 1673–1712'' (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1966), p.15, citing "Extrait d'une lettre de Monsr. de Leibniz," ''Journal des sçavans'' '''20''' (2 June 1692), 365-269.</ref> In 1762 it carried [[Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron]]'s landmark study of [[Zoroastrianism]].{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} A self-assured misreading of [[Japanese language|Japanese]] sources in an 1817 article by [[Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Abel-Rémusat |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Description d'un Groupe d'Îles Peu Connues |trans-title=Description of a Little Known Group of Islands |journal=Journal des Savans |date=July 1817 |pages=387–396 |language=fr}}</ref> led to the name of the [[Bonin Islands]] to the south of Japan.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kublin |first=Hyman |title=The Discovery of the Bonin Islands: A Reexamination |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |date=March 1953 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=27–46 |doi=10.2307/2561081 |jstor=2561081 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last=Brown |first=Harcourt |year=1972 |title=History and the Learned Journal |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=365–378|doi=10.2307/2709041 |jstor=2709041 |pmid=11609708 }}
*{{cite book |last=Hallam |first=Henry |year=1842 |title=Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries |publisher=Harper & Brothers}}
*{{cite book |last=James |first=Ioan |author-link=Ioan James |year=2004 |title=Remarkable Physicists: From Galileo to Yukawa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-01706-8}}
*{{cite book |last=Kilgour |first=Frederick G. |year=1998 |title=The Evolution of the Book |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-511859-6}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*[https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=journal&journal_code=JDS ''Journal des Savants'' current publisher] (issues from 2023–present)
*[https://aibl.fr/categories-publications/journal-des-savants/ ''Journal des Savants'' previous publisher] (issues from 2016–2020)
*[http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/revue/jds Open access issues of ''Journal des Savants''] (1909–2016)
*Original [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb343488023/date ''Journal des sçavans''] at [[Gallica]]
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Journal Des Scavans}}
[[Category:French-language journals]]
[[Category:Academic journals established in 1665]]
[[Category:Literary magazines published in France]]
[[Category:Multidisciplinary academic journals]]
[[Category:1665 establishments in France]]
[[Category:Peeters Publishers academic journals]]
[[Category:Annual journals]]