In 1807 and 1810, Conrad Malte-Brun, a Danish journalist and scientist who emigrated to France in 1799, brought out two publishing initiatives : a new journal, the Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie et de l’Histoire, and the Précis de la géographie universelle. With these two publications, he intends to build a geographical science on solid and common basis. It is the first time, at least in French, that a project of creating a real geographical discipline takes place : that wish represents a particular moment in the history of science and, moreover, in the history of geography. Through these publications Malte-Brun wants geography finally to be recognised and developed as an independent science among others ; his aim is to fix its scientific identity. This identity is firstly based on a group of French and European scientists defined as geographers by Malte-Brun himself in his articles. They are meant to join together around common objects, methods and theoretical concepts. It is at least the aim pursued by Malte-Brun. In reality, his epistemological project is not that clear and offers astonishing choices. The analysis of both texts shows a few difficulties in his proposals. For example : the importance of the literary style of writing seems to win at the expense of the analysis ; the rejection of methodological innovations, such as the field work defended by Alexander von Humboldt and many others, represents the refusal of the essential plurality in the production of geographical knowledge ; and finally the wish for scientific independence, expressed in particular against history, is actually lost in multiple cooperation with other scientific fields, as if Malte-Brun was indeed unable to assume the geography’s autonomy. By analyzing these texts, this article means to identify an important moment in the history of geography, a moment which for a long time influenced a range of objects, lines and methods of our discipline. Some of the questions raised by Malte-Brun, such as the opportunity of the field work or the literarity of the geographical language, are still subjects of interest today. By re-reading the geography proposed by Conrad Malte-Brun more than 200 years ago, this article intends to shed light on one of the first episode in the history of geography where its identity was questioned.