Voyages aériens du xvii^e siècle Entre science et imagination

When Cyrano sends his hero flying towards the moon and then the sun in L’Autre Monde, air travel, still unbelievable at this point, is considered as a provisionally imaginary and fantastical medium with which to experiment with serious scientific theories. Taking a diachronic approach, this article studies interplanetary voyages of the seventeenth century, an era which saw the birth of modern science, and examines the division between science and imagination in these tales.