Cyrano de Bergerac, miroir (déformant) des connaissances et des idées démographiques du XVIIe siècle

Cyrano de Bergerac (the real as opposed to the dramatic character) was a free-thinking author of the mid-seventeenth century, whose utopian tales imaginary journeys to the moon and sun-contain numerous comments and anecdotes about life and death, men and women, sexuality and fertility, and other themes of interest to the demographer. Unlike what has been done for other utopian authors, however, any attempt to identify a consistency in these disparate elements in order to outline "the demographic doctrine of Cyrano" would be pointless. This provocative free-thinker was more concerned to shock than to present a consistent analysis. Nonetheless, just as his fantastical machines and wild theories represent a skillful vulgarization of the science of his day, so many details in his output can be viewed as caricatural yet accurate indicators of the knowledge and attitudes of the period concerning reproduction, eugenics, health, longevity, and even demographic ethics