Two unpublished documents – the reports of the Société Royale of medicine and the Académie Royale des Sciences on Entomologia Parisiensis and their implications for zoological nomenclature

Published in 1762 by E.-L. Geoffroy Histoire abregée des insectes… is one of the most important works of eighteenth-century zoology, both because of the number of species described and the use of the Linnean system. However, the descriptions were published in French and the work itself had a format that was impractical for field research. In 1785 A.-F. Fourcroy published Entomologia Parisiensis based on it, adding not only Latin descriptions but several hundred new species. Since then, there has been a dispute whether Entomologia Parisiensis is an original work or merely an adaptation of Histoire abregée des insectes. The article analyzes the reports of the Académie Royale des Sciences and Académie royale de Médecine preceding the publication of this work. The originality of Entomologia Parisiensis was clearly demonstrated, and it was established which species should be considered as described by Fourcroy and which were originally described by Geoffroy.