The French Museology

The origin of the term “museology” as we know it can be traced back to 18th century France, and its evolution is closely intertwined with different stages in the history of public museums, especially their Revolutionary and Republican foundations. The development of a French tradition in museum studies is subsequently linked to the early 20th century, through the works of writers, aesthetes and historians, as well as famous practitioners, who were commemorated on various occasions. This paper will firstly present the various stages of museology's history in French society. Next, it will look over different places and means of development and distribution of museological research, namely institutions, laboratories and scientific publications or popular scientific journals which disseminate museological reflections. Finally, the successive configurations of the discipline, in its diverse institutional and scholarly writings, will be outlined.