Jean-Baptiste Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Science to Louis XIV (oil on canvas), Henri Testelin (1616–95)/Bridgeman Images
Posting a link here to a Comment piece in Nature from earlier this week: http://www.nature.com/news/peer-review-troubled-from-the-start-1.19763
Here's the quote that prompted me to post this: "one thing stands out: pivotal moments in the history of peer review have occurred when the public status of science was being renegotiated."
The timeline illustration in the article:
