TY - JOUR AU - CaƱete, Carlos PY - 2012/12/30 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The Difficult Unity of the Mediterranean in the Works and Expeditions of Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846) JF - Culture & History Digital Journal JA - Cult. Hist. Digit. J. VL - 1 IS - 2 SE - Dossier DO - 10.3989/chdj.2012.m105 UR - https://cultureandhistory.revistas.csic.es/index.php/cultureandhistory/article/view/15 SP - m105 AB - For a long time consigned to oblivion, the figure of the soldier and naturalist Bory de Saint-Vincent has been during recent years the subject of a renewed but timid interest. This recovery is justified especially for his role as leader of the French missions in the Morea and Algeria, which replicated the military-scientific model that started in Egypt. Indeed, this leadership and the works of anthropology or botany that he produced as a result are now considered key elements in the process of construction of a modern unitary representation of the Mediterranean. These recent contributions, however, often do not consider other of his works that offer a much more complex and contradictory image of his thought. This article offers a review of recent interpretation by giving examples of his works on the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands. It aims to show his representation of the Mediterranean not as a homogeneous and linear process but as the result of an ambivalent approach that led to both a unitary image and a simultaneous internal differentiation of the region. ER -