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The Discovery of Jeanne Baret

a Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe
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Dec 11, 2015Liber_vermis rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Rural herbalist Jeanne Baret encountered Renaissance botanist Philibert Commerson in the French countryside while collecting medicinal plants. Baret became the companion of widower Commerson. Then Commerson was offered the opportunity to participate in the first French naval circumnavigation of Earth. As women were prohibited from naval vessels Baret accompanied Commerson disguised as a young man to act as his botany assistant. This page-turner account of Baret's work and misadventures reveals the gender-based contradictions and inequalities of the 18th century. The book contains some black and white illustrations, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.