author
Charles-Marie de La Condamine
1701–1774
An 18th-century French explorer and mathematician, he is remembered for helping measure the Earth at the equator and for turning a demanding journey through South America into some of the era’s most vivid scientific travel writing.
1 Audiobook
Histoire d'une jeune fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l'âge de dix ans
by active 1755 Mme. Hecquet, Charles-Marie de La Condamine
About the author
Born in Paris in 1701, Charles-Marie de La Condamine studied at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, served briefly in the army, and then moved toward science and exploration. He became a member of the French Academy of Sciences and built a reputation as a sharp, curious observer with a taste for ambitious projects.
He is best known for joining the French geodesic expedition sent to what is now Ecuador in the 1730s to measure a degree of latitude at the equator, a major effort in the long debate over the Earth’s shape. After years of difficult work in the Andes, he traveled much of the Amazon River, producing one of the earliest scientific accounts of the region and helping introduce European readers to materials such as rubber and quinine.
La Condamine died in Paris in 1774. Today he stands out as a figure who linked mathematics, geography, natural history, and adventure, bringing the spirit of Enlightenment science into some of the most challenging landscapes of his time.