bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Le théâtre des Italiens
Authors: Perroud Robert
Published: June 2016

Italian theatre and the seven years war.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the role of Italy in European history was marginal, especially during the Seven Years War, Nevertheless, Metastasio, the most famous Italian dramatist of the time devoted two of his dramatic «fêtes » to that conflict, namely II Sogrio (1756) and Egeria (1763). True, he lived in Vienna and another of his plays, Ercole al bivio (1760) was linked in passing to court intrigue there against Marshal Daun. In the same historical context, Goldoni wrote one of his less good comedies, called precisely La Guerra (1760) : the expression, like Egeria of a somewhat Platonic pacifism, which nonetheless serves as a prelude to the much firmer stand taken soon afterwards by the «illuministi ».
Quatre lettres négligées de J.-B. Suard à Julie de Lespinasse
Authors: Pascal Jean-Noël
Published: June 2016

Four neglected letters of suard to Julie de Lespinasse.

The four letters written by the writer Jean-Baptiste Suard (1732-1817) to Julie de Lespinasse, which are lodged at the Bibliothèque Nationale, demonstrate the friendly relations between the two correspondents. Of these four letters, three are unpublished. The first, dated from London, comes from Suard's second visit to England (1773), the two following, dated from La Source, allude to the deterioration in Julie's health, much affected by the marriage of her lover, the comte de Guibert, in 1775. The last — already published in 1927 — is dated from Montigny, where the government had met, in October 1775, to choose a new Minister of War.
Les relations théâtrales franco-polonaises
Authors: Klimowicz Mieczyslaw
Published: June 2016

The relations between French and polish drama in the 18th century.

The Polish theatre undergoes a renaissance in the 18th century marked by the creation in 1765 of a public theatre. It is modernised thanks to French influence, manifest primarily by the presence of French theatre companies in Warsaw. This influence is felt particularly in the general notion of drama as well as in the adaptation to the Polish stage of particular techniques — didactic theatre, «comédie larmoyante» (sentimental drama), «drame bourgeois » (domestic drama), comic-opera and the comedy of manners that originated in the commedia dell'arte of the Italian Theatre in Paris.
Savoir totalisant et forme éclatée
Authors: Delon Michel
Published: June 2016

Michel Delon : Global knowledge and discrete form.

This article analyses in conjunction a crisis of knowledge and a crisis of form at the end of the 18th C. Delisle de Sales's De la philosophie de la Nature and Rétif de la Bretonne's La philosophie de M. Nicolas exhibit similar tensions. The ambition to provide an encyclopaedic inventory of the universe conflicts with a desire to sum up experience in a single formula ; on the one hand, an itemised catalogue and on the other, the condensed maxim. In other words, relativity as against absolute truth. This contradiction was that of a period which saw the clash between materialism and a spiritual revival, and the separation between scientific and literary activity.
Mme de Staël et l'esprit national
Authors: Zemek Théodora
Published: June 2016

Theodora Zemek : Mme de Staël and the national spirit.

This article attempts to show the originality of Mme de Stael's thought and the modernity of the theories of society, through an analysis of her conception of the decline of the national spirit. The author shows how Mme de Stael's view of the perfectibility of the human spirit, which excludes all determinism, differs from that of her predecessors. Mme de Stael attempts to give a social basis to morality by demonstrating how man, thanks to the faculty of sympathy, is drawn into community with his fellows. The sense of community, source of moral values, which becomes the national spirit, declines as society progresses ; the individual is alienated in the depersonalised modern society, in which the national spirit has been replaced by the ideal of the State.
Les derniers feux «gothiques» en Angleterre
Authors: Fierobe Claude
Published: June 2016

Claude Fierobe : The gothic novel's swan-song.

In the works of the Reverend Charles Robert Mathurin, the Gothic novel reaches its final brilliant climax. Night reigns supreme and reverberates in the mind, in which there is no longer any room for reason ; if the slumbering mind is the breeding-ground for monsters, Mathurin welcomes the energy of the depths in which anything is possible. In addition, in the name of religious orthodoxy and a theology of origins, he rejects the Enlightenment, even if there remains the possibility of a twilight interlude placed under the sign of Endymion. A harsh God exacts retribution from men who are not masters of their own destiny.
Cuisine et littérature populaire
Authors: Andries Lise
Published: June 2016

Lise Andries : Cooking and popular literature.

Food is a subject frequently found in 18th-century popular literature. It is present not only in such technical manuals as cookêry books or gardening handbooks, but also, indirectly, in volumes of magical and medical recipes, collections of witticisms and almanachs. An analysis of these works reveals an interpretation of food based essentially on the myth of the land of plenty. The fantasy of abundance seems to have obsessed the imagination of most people in an age that was still marked by deprivation.
Un manuscrit inconnu de Telliamed
Authors: Artigas-Menant Geneviève
Published: June 2016

Geneviève Menant-Artigas : An unknown manuscript of «telliamed ».

One of the strangest of the clandestine philosophical works of the French Eighteenth Century is Benoit de Maillet's Telliamed. Numerous manuscript copies circulated long before the first published edition in 1748 ; as the author constantly corrected his text, these copies vary considerably. The six manuscript copies known in France in 1980 were divided into two main groups ; however, there has now been found a seventh one in the library of Vire in Normandy, full of very interesting corrections, which make this manuscript a link between several different versions. Moreover, the Vire manuscript proves that there were at least four different states of Telliamed before the printed version.
Pour saluer «Paméla». Une œuvre inconnue de Voltaire
Authors: Magnan André
Published: June 2016

André Magnan : An unknown work by Voltaire.

The forty or so letters to Madame Denis at present classified among Voltaire's correspondence for the years 1750-3 are in fact «forgeries ». Material, historical and formal criticism all leads to the same conclusion, namely that they are a biased, romanticised and literary re-writing of a true exchange of letters that is now lost. It is in fact an epistolary novel. It is an unfortunate mystification which has distorted the whole biographical tradition of Voltaire's stay in Prussia ; we must consider it as a new work by Voltaire — both «anti-Frederick » and «Ur-Memoirs ».
D'Alembert et les équations aux dérivées partielles
Authors: Engelsman Steven B.
Published: June 2016

Steven B. Engelsman : D'Alembert and partial differential equations.

D'Alembert's application of partial differential calculus to problems of continuum mechanics, as exemplified in his studies on the vibrating string, forms the beginning of the theory of partial differential equations. This article traces back the origins of d'Alembert's mathematical techniques to Euler's geometrical work of the 1730s, thus illustrating the essential break through in the applicability of partial differential calculus achieved by d'Alembert. Furthermore, it confronts d'Alembert's ideas on the aim and scope of the calculus with those of his fellow mathematicians Euler and Daniel Bernoulli.
D'Alembert, Euler et l'Académie de Berlin
Authors: Taton René
Published: June 2016

René Taton : D'Alembert, Euler and the Berlin Academy.

D'Alembert, who won one of the Berlin Academy's prizes in 1746, began a correspondence with Euler, the director of the Mathematical Class, and published several mathematical articles in the Academy's Mémoires. The letters he exchanged with Euler, especially in 1746-1751, are extremely interesting for the history of science in the 18th Century. Frederick II wished to make d'Alembert President of the Academy as early as 1752 and exchanged letters with him. His stay in Berlin in 1766 and Euler's replacement by Lagrange in 1766 increased d'Alembert's influence in the Academy, which was not however constant and was more marked in the field of letters than in those of philosophy and science.
Iconographie
Authors: Luna Marie-Françoise , Reynes Geneviève
Published: June 2016

Marie-Françoise Luna and Geneviève Reynes : Iconography.

Until now there was no iconography of d'Alembert ; we have therefore attempted to bring together all the portraits of him that could be found or traced. They were often reproducted one after another, based on a few original contemporary works which were the most authentic and interesting depictions of d'Alembert : a pastel by La Tour, an oil painting by Van Loo or Catherine Lusurier, two busts by Houdon and a drawing by Cochin. The abundance and variety of the portraits (oils, pastels, drawings, medallions, sculptures and many engravings — 106 notices in all) indicates his fame as director of the Encyclopédie and leader of the philosophical party, rather than as a mathematician.
Les contrats pour la troisième édition de l'Histoire des Deux-Indes
Authors: Goggi Gianluigi
Published: June 2016

Gianluigi Goggi : The contracts for the third edition of the "Histoire des

Deux Indes".

Using documents from the State Archives in Geneva and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, this article attempts to describe the network of relations between Parisian and Genevan publishers which resulted in the third edition of the Histoire des Deux Indes, printed in Geneva in 1780 by J.-L. Pellet. The documents show clearly the technical and financial role played by J.G.A. Stoupe, a printer and publisher who, after working with Le Breton, publisher of the Encyclopédie, took his place among the Paris printers. The role of Ch. J. Panckoucke was more discreet but no less important. From this chapter in publishing history we can see that the publication of the Histoire des Deux Indes was a continuation of the "business of Enlightenment" recently described by R. Darnton.
Le protestantisme dans l'Encyclopédie
Authors: Proust Jacques
Published: June 2016

Jacques Proust : Protestantism in the «encyclopédie ».

Although many Encyclopédie articles, mostly in the fields of politics and philosophy, were drawn from Protestant sources, the number of Protestants who contributed as such was comparatively small. The four discussed in this article are Bottens, Formey, Romilly, Jaucourt. The first is a good example of the radical trend that led Voltaire to believe that Calvin's Geneva had turned Deist. Formey and Romilly seem more orthodox, but their contribution on religious matters is too slight to be significant. Jaucourt, on the contrary, whose collaboration was extensive, was the epitome of those French Protestants who, living in their native country, were able to maintain and express their faith — sometimes at their own risk.
L'Asiatique tolérant ou le «Traité sur la tolérance» de La Beaumelle (1748)
Authors: Lauriol Claude
Published: June 2016

Claude Lauriol : La Beaumelle's treatise on toleration : «l'asiatique

Tolérant ».

La Beaumelle, a Protestant, published in 1748 L'Asiatique tolérant, traité à l'usage de Zéokinizul, roi des Kofirans... ; this veritable ' treatise on toleration ', addressed directly to Louis XV, mixing the religious and the political, reworks with impassioned logic contemporary arguments for civil toleration of the Protestants in France. It is evident from the partial summary given by a Protestant periodical, the work's condemnation and burning by the Grenoble Parlement and the curious form of expression chosen by La Beaumelle that it was at that date difficult to present a coherent and original analysis of such a delicate subject.
Les Assemblées du clergé et les protestants
Authors: Péronnet Michel
Published: June 2016

Michel Peronnet : The «assemblées du clergé de France » and the

protestants.

The Assemblies of the French Clergy, which met every five years, represented bishops and part of the lower clergy ; their main aim was to vote a tax known as the ' don gratuit ' (' gratuit ' meaning voluntary). Sometimes the bishops sent petitions to the King, asking for his intervention in religious matters ; some of these concerned the ' nouveaux Catholiques ' (i.e. former Protestants). The bishops demanded the application of the King's rulings against Protestants ; they wanted him to give orders to judges, the police and landlords to force the Huguenots to obey the law. In 1788, the bishops published a remontrance very critical of the King's policy concerning the ' non-Catholics '. From the 16th to the end of the 18th Century, the bishops insisted that Protestants were heretics who had to be condemned for disobeying the King and for ' lèse-majesté
Deux musiciens français à la cour de Prusse
Authors: Milliot Sylvette
Published: June 2016

Sylvette Milliot : Two French Musicians at the Prussian court.

The role of Frederick William II of Prussia (1786-1797) as a patron of music is less known than that of his predecessor, his uncle Frederick II. The recent discovery of private archives and letters concerning two French 'cellists, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Louis Duport, throw light on this aspect of his reign. This article explains the circumstances in which the King brought the two musicians to his court as professor and Superintendant of his music. It also shows how he was behind Mozart's Prussian quartets, Beethoven's first two sonatas and Variations for 'cello and piano, and the quintets for two 'cellos which Boccherini wrote during this period.
«Un métier de chien». Précepteurs, demoiselles de compagnie et bohème littéraire dans le Refuge allemand
Authors: Duranton Henri
Published: June 2016

Henri Duranton : «A dog's life... ». tutors, ladies' Companions and literary bohemia among german Huguenots.

J. H. S. Formey's abundant correspondence brings to life a forgotten social group, the French-speaking intellectuals in Berlin. Many were pastors and led a mediocre but secure life. This article concerns the others, who were often tutors or language teachers, or, with a little luck, secretaries to a nobleman ; none of these occupations led to riches, and the situation of women was even worse. This intellectual proletariat was haunted by the fear of losing social status or of misery in their old age. Four case studies show, finally, the possibilities when, through courage, intelligence or luck, an individual managed to escape the common fate.
Les occasions de lire
Authors: Roche Daniel
Published: June 2016

Daniel Roche : Opportunities for reading.

Reading, for the lower classes, should be seen as both an expression of individual effort and as a form of sociability. The circulation of the printed word can best be studied in towns for, unlike the countryside — still relatively untouched by the spread of literacy — 18th-century towns, particularly Paris, were inundated with writings. Thanks to books, almanachs, pamphlets and so on, but also posters and signs, townspeople were surrounded by written messages, which meant that even those who could not read were in constant contact with the printed word. Furthermore, this popularisation of learning was completed through the family, the workplace, religion and celebrations.
Chanson et musique populaires devant l'Histoire à la fin de l'Ancien Régime
Authors: Reichardt Rolf , Schneider Herbert
Published: June 2016

Rolf Reichardt and Herbert Schneider : Popular songs and History in

late 18th-century France.

This article considers the neglected subject of old French historical and political songs as a semi-oral cultural field for interdisciplinary studies linking the history of popular literature, musicology, ethnology and history. A serial study of all the songs given with their tunes in the Mémoires secrets from 1762 to 1787 shows the politicisation not only of the texts but also of the music ; this process is backed up by the ' semantic ' character of certain tunes and by a change of melodic structure which gives greater importance to the refrain. This transformation, in which comic opera and vaudeville played an important role, prepared the ground for the songs of the French Revolution.
La biographie criminelle anglaise. Formes narratives et circuits de diffusion
Authors: du Sorbier Françoise
Published: June 2016

Françoise du Sorbier : English criminal biographies.

In the 18th Century, criminals were the subject of a large number of writings aimed at a very wide readership. This study takes two typical examples, a real-life criminal, James Hind, and Moll Flanders, the heroine of Defoe's autobiographical fiction ; it follows the careers of these two characters, from press accounts to novel, via chap literature. We discover that the stories of criminals to be found in the chapbooks tend to be conformist, while the accounts aimed at a better-soff readership are more subversive. Nevertheless the relations existing between classical and popular literature and their influence on each other show that the traditional distinction made between ' popular 'and' classical ' is purely arbitrary.
La critique newtonienne de la méthode cartésienne
Authors: Larmore Charles
Published: June 2016

Charles Larmore : Newton's criticism of Cartesian method.

Newton's statement " hypotheses non fingo " has often been wrongly taken as an expression of dogmatism, and thus as an indication that his Cartesian opponents had a more acceptable, corrigibilist view of scientific method. In this article I try to show that the Cartesians were the real dogmatists, because of their a priori claim that all action of one body on another must be mechanical. Newton preferred to leave this controversial issue open, arguing that he could establish, independently of it, some important truths about this phenomenon. In the process he developed a new, corrigibilist conception of certainty.
L'Essai sur l'origine du mal, de William King. Vers une définition de l'optimisme
Authors: Cottret Bernard
Published: June 2016

Bernard Cottret : Archbishop King's De origine mali.

18th-century optimism has often been associated with Leibniz's Theodicy and Voltaire's satire on it ; but very little attention has been paid to William King's Essay on the Origin of Evil (1702), despite its influence on the Enlightenment, both in England and abroad, and Leibniz's praise for it, although he disagreed with King. A rejection of anthropomorphic criteria of right and wrong could be reconciled, according to this work, with the basic tenets of Christianity. This liberal theology, with its emphasis on the mechanical regularity of Creation, is examined in relation to developments in science and politics ; God became, in the wake of the Glorious Revolution, a law-abiding monarch, reluctant to intervene in the day-to-day administration of the world.
Les tragédies romaines de Voltaire
Authors: Mazouer Charles
Published: June 2016

Charles Mazouer : Voltaire's Roman tragedies.

The five tragedies with Roman subjects are presented as five pages of classical history, through which Voltaire judges the historical period he has conjured up and takes a political stand on events of his own day. This article shows next how Voltaire, using the tradition of the tormented Cornelian hero, glorifies the virtue of these great characters who must win victories over themselves. But at the same time, it is clear that Voltaire's admiration for these great Romans is tempered by doubt as to heroism. His tragedies lead us to doubt the reasons for heroic actions, seen as examples of revolting barbarity, and the tragic hero arouses emotion rather than admiration. This demolition of the hero in fact saps tragic form from the inside.
«Jacques, vous n'avez jamais été femme»
Authors: Renaud Jean
Published: June 2016

Jean Renaud : «Jacques, you never were a woman ».

In Jacques le fataliste as in other texts, Diderot wanted to call a spade a spade in sexual matters, to reduce things to their naked simplicity, and write " arse " or " fuck ". But this is an impossible task, for we come up against the real, to use Lacan's expression ; it always eludes us and never accounts for everything. This is the eternal frustration of ontological undertakings ; we can never know the true nature of the sexual. It is not therefore a question of ignorance or of hypocrisy. If there is a gap in this universe, it can never be filled by language, because it was created by language in the first place. Fiction — knowledge which is no knowledge — in the only discourse applicable to the question of sex.
Comment la maçonnerie vint aux femmes
Authors: Bertrand Colette
Published: June 2016

Colette Bertrand : How Freemasonry came to women.

The proposition, made in 1744 by the chevalier de Beauchêne, to accept women in Masonic lodges, was only put into practice thirty years later. Certain female Masons were famous and their names have come down to us through engravings or poems. This fashionable side of French Masonry declined during the Revolution and 18th-century ladies' Freemasonry vanished.
Figures allemandes autour de l'Encyclopédie
Authors: Espagne Michel , Werner Michel
Published: June 2016

Michel Espagne Michel Werner : Germans in the encyclopédie circle.

In Paris in the second half of the 18th Century there was a German or pro-German cultural circle around the Encyclopédie which was trying to forge, with the help of French recognition, a German national identity. Baron d'Holbach, by his scientific translations and his contributions to the Encyclopédie, brought a German influence to bear on reflections on the arts and technology. This concerned mainly German mineralogy and metallurgy which were inspired by a natural philosophy still influenced by alchemy. Thus, in the heart of a work inspired by mechanistic physics, matter was still seen as an organism.
Chaîne des idées et chaîne des êtres dans Le Rêve de d'Alembert
Authors: Suzuki Mineko
Published: June 2016

Mineko Suzuki : Chain of ideas and chain of beings in the rêve de

d'Alembert.

It is hardly surprising that in the last ten years the Rêve de d'Alembert has attracted critical attention and growing popular success. The reason is that this work, although difficult, best reveals Diderot's creative process. By his writing, he shows clearly that everything is in a state of perpetual transformation. Ideas and beings, mutually intertwined, form a sort of living tissue which mirrors the evolution of life. This movement widens as ideas are gradually enriched and modified by being repeatedly reformulated. The work itself, which neither begins nor ends clearly, shows once and for all that the process of creation cannot be restricted, that it exists both before and after, and that the work is only a part of it.
L'astronome Lexell et les athées parisiens (1780-1781)
Authors: Dulac Georges
Published: June 2016

Georges Dulac : The astronomer Lexell and Parisian atheists (1780-

1781).

From Paris, Lexell wrote to J. A. Euler a series of letters concerned mainly with the Académie des Sciences and literary circles. Here we are concerned with the accounts of his meetings with Lalande, Diderot and d'Holbach. Lexell was shocked by Lalande's atheism, reminding him that Diderot was «brought down » on this subject by Æpinus in Petersburgh. This reference throws light on an obscure incident concerning Diderot's «demonstration » of the possibility of explaining planetary movement without, like Newton, supposing an initial impulse from the Creator. This reasoning, which he had proposed to several mathematicians (iCpinus, the Eulers, J. F. Hennert), should be linked to a paper by J. J. de Marguerite (1773). After having described his hostility to the Parisians' irreligion, Lexell, who was welcomed by Diderot and his friends, gives a favourable account of a conversation with the Philosopher (concerning Falconet's monument) ; he also shows sympathy for d'Holbach and admiration for the Histoire des deux Indes.
Tristram Shandy, ou l'histoire de l'écriture
Authors: Chabut Marie-Hélène
Published: June 2016

Marie-Hélène Chabut : Tristram Shandy or the story of writing.

Tristram Shandy is a sharp parody of the historical function of the narrator and his claim to be telling the truth. In addition, the chronological disorder and the confusion of the different levels of narration and «story » show that the latter is not self-evident but is the totally arbitrary production of the narrator. These tactics finally give the impression that it is an order «chosen » by «I ». Finally, the text's insistence on itself as an object in the process of fabrication creates the illusion of a present of the narration in process. Thus we move from the «traditional » realism of a story to a very coherent one of its telling and reception. The story becomes that of the writing and reading of the tale. Different readings of Tristram Shandy are also discussed, which show the power of this «new realism » on the most sensitive readers.
Le récit d'événement dans la presse de 1789
Authors: Labrosse Claude
Published: June 2016

The beginning of the French Revolution led, in Quebec, to a general questioning of its «feudal » society that the British conquerors had preserved and the Sons of Liberty had been unable to alter. The Montreal Gazette, edited by the printer Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794), a friend of Benjamin Franklin, reflected the Canadians' favourable reaction to the revolutionary movement. The storming of the Bastille became a sign of hope for the middle classes and caused panic among the church dignitaries and the nobles who had survived the British conquest in 1760. A study of the Montreal Gazette in 1789 reveals the acceleration of the movement for political and social reform in the former «Nouvelle France ».
Naissance de l'«Assemblée Nationale»
Authors: Lamarque Pierre
Published: June 2016

On the day after their royal opening on 5th May 1789, the Estates General began their sittings in three separate houses. That of the Third Estate took the name of «Commons », but in its first sitting on 6th May, the deputy Malouet spoke of the «National Assembly ». This expression was used during the month of May and the first half of June by several speakers in the «Commons » and was even used in the Nobles'House. A few representatives of the clergy joined the Third Estate between the 13th and 16thJune and, at Sièyes's suggestion, the Commons decided on 17th to form the National Assembly. This decision has been considered as the first revolutionary act of the Third Estate and the clerical minority.
Autopsie de la Bastille : peindre l'événement en 1789
Authors: Mantion Jean-Rémy
Published: June 2016

This article studies the problem created by the urgent need to paint the storming of the Bastille, symbol of the beginning of the Revolution. This difficulty is particularly in evidence in the few paintings of the 1789 Salon devoted to the important events of that historic summer. It can be especially seen in a perhaps momentary, but nevertheless significant, blurring of the hierarchy of pictural genres. Painters like Vestier, Hubert Robert, Moreau le Jeune, Demachy or Houel, whose status was unclear (were they genre, architecture or landscape painters ?), painted the demolition rather than the storming of the Bastille ; this example leads us to reflect on why, in the space of a year, there was an unexpected alliance of history and landscape.
La musique à Paris en 1789
Authors: Jam Jean-Louis
Published: June 2016

Nothing in the musical scene in 1789 foreshadowed the coming upheaval. All the programmes for both opera and concerts continued the tradition dating from the 1770s. The favourite French composers were all at the height of long and glorious careers, and their successors were as yet hardly emerging or were still children. This period saw the beginning of the music-lovers'long preference for Italian composers, who triumphed on the stage, in the concert-hall and in amateur circles. The quarrel between French and Italian music, which had marked the whole century, was finally over ; the majority, «the Public », had overridden the philosophes' diatribes. 1789 was for the French, united in their admiration for Italian music, a year of consensus, which was to be only briefly disturbed by the needs of revolutionary propaganda.
Discours ecclésial, monarchique et médical sur la maladie
Authors: Péronnet Michel
Published: June 2016

In the West, the earliest view of illness was that of the Church, for whom it was a divine warning and epidemics a divine punishment. The royal point of view added a practical application of this esoteric conception, as the state tried to help the sick and, in particular, to stop the spread of epidemics. This, however, implied a contradiction as, if one believed that the epidemic was the expression of the wrath of God, one should not attempt to halt it. A third attitude appeared with the development of medical knowledge, as medicine became an independent discipline only concerned with the sick individual. These three attitudes can be summed up as follows : the sick man is, first, a soul to be saved, then a subject to be treated, and finally a human being to be cared for.
Une anecdote sur La Condamine
Authors: Beeson David
Published: June 2016

A scurrilous quatrain against La Condamine appeared at the time of his admission to the Académie française in 1761. The evidence of correspondence in the Bernoulli archives in Basel shows that, as has long been suspected, the author was La Condamine himself.
Regard critique sur l'édition des Œuvres de Prévost
Authors: Sgard Jean
Published: June 2016

Jean Sgard : A Critical look at the edition of Prévosps works.

The last volume of Prévost's works was recently published by the Presses Universitaires de Grenoble. In this article, its general editor provides a brief history of the edition, emphasizing the importance of economic factors in the publication of a critical edition. These economic constraints have adversely affected the physical presentation of the text, but have not serious compromised the project as a whole. This new edition can be said to provide a completely new version of the text of Prévost's thirteen novels.
L'esthétique des passions : Marmontel et l'Opéra
Authors: Bardon Yves
Published: June 2016

Yves Bardon : Marmontel s esthetics of the passions.

Jean-François Marmontel was the author of all the literature articles in the 1776 Supplément of the Encyclopédie ; in addition a series of aesthetic texts dating from 1773-7 show him to be the chief representative of Neo-Academism inherited from 18th-century Classicism, in a period which demanded a revolution of meaning in all fields, particularly the performing arts. Opera (also transformed by the arrival of Gliick) was supposed to express what classical theatre could not. Marmontel condemned the aesthetics of suffering, terror or excessive realism, preferring a model inherited from Greco-Roman mythology in which the «marvellous » serves «morality ». He was nostaligic for the great spectacles of Louis XVI's court, while at the same time taking part in the rise of Comic Opera and popular genres. He was unable to prevent the revolution in opera which questioned the nature and social utility of art in general.
De la lettre au roman : sur l'entrée en littérature de Julie de Lespinasse
Authors: Pascal Jean-Noël
Published: June 2016

Jean-Noël Pascal : From letter to novel. Reflections on Mlle de Lespinasse's entry into literature.

A comparison of the two versions of M"e de Lespinasse's Letters, the bowdlerized 1809 edition and the authentic 1906 edition. After having sketched the work's publication history, we attempt to show first of all how the 1809 edition's omission of Guibert's replies to his mistress creates a novel-like continuity and coherence and how the removal of a large part of her own text concentrates all the passion on Mlle de Lespinasse while reinforcing the negative image of her lover. Next, various mutilations and corrections of the text by the first editor are considered. The result — which transforms a true correspondence into a Portuguese-style novel in letter form — is arguably weaker and less romantic for the modern reader than the authentic letters between Mlle de Lespinasse and her lover.
La crise du théâtre à Paris en 1793
Authors: Jean-Bérard Suzanne
Published: June 2016

Suzanne J. Bérard : The 1793 Paris theatre crisis.

Revolutionary theatre was born with liberty ; after 14th July actors and authors freed themselves from the Old Regime's restrictions. The law of 15th January 1791 confirmed this freedom, with only the apparently minor restriction that its supervision was in the hands of the local councils who were to prevent disorder in the towns. In 1793 however with the new Commune this restriction became significant ; the Théâtre de la Nation (the Comédie-Française) put on a violently anti-Montagnard play, supported if not inspired by the Girondins, which led to a series of incidents which would have been farcical if they had not been ominous. After this the theatre moved further from political issues until, after Marat's assassination, a strong government was formed and Couthon proposed a law which placed the theatre under the control of the government.
Le Journal du voyage en Italie de l'abbé de Saint-Non (1759-1761)
Authors: Mascoli Laura
Published: June 2016

Laura Mascoli : The abbé de Saint-Non's travel Journal in Italy (1759-1761).

This article is in three parts. It starts from a critical analysis of a volume entitled Panopticon Italiano which claims to publish a «rediscovered travel journal », which the art historian P. Rosenberg presents with illustrations from drawings, «copies of masters » and Fragonard. Next Saint-Non's Journal (travels and residence in Rome and Naples, between 1759 and 1761) is examined for itself. In addition to showing its interest as a document describing, amongst other things, the abbé's relations with the French Academy and Fragonard, we analyze the author's progress between this work and his Voyage pittoresque.
Une méthode universelle pour voyager avec profit, par Léopold Berchtold
Authors: Chevallier Élisabeth
Published: June 2016

Elisabeth Chevallier : A universal method for profitable travel, by

count L. Berchtold.

Berchtold's aim, in publishing his Essay to Direct and Extend the Inquiries of patriotic Travellers, was to teach them how to make the best use of their time. Lists of questions were provided to help them to conduct inquiries and obtain a thorough knowledge of the countries they visited, with an emphasis on whatever could encourage progress. With his belief in human perfectibility, interest in technology and search for exhaustive knowledge, Berchtold was a descendant of the Encyclopédie. His rigorous method aroused the interest of his contemporaries who saw travel as a scientific undertaking aimed at contributing to different fields of learning.
Voyageurs français en Chine. Impressions et jugements
Authors: Broc Numa
Published: June 2016

Numa Broc : French travellers in China.

Enlightened Europe undertook a rapprochement with Manchou China which was in a period of expansion and needed money and technical experts ; it welcomed with great tolerance foreign traders, missionaries and travellers. While trade was restricted to Canton and subjected to Han intermediaries, the jesuits had great success in Peking, providing the philosopher-emperor (or enlightened despot) with the scientists, generals and diplomats he needed. Travel accounts, Chinese Atlas, the vision of Confucianism and Chinese art, all contributed to a passion for things Chinese throughout Europe which was encouraged by the Philosophes. The Jesuits, who admired Chinese agriculture, also provided the Physiocrats with a perfect illustration of their theory. In the second half of the century, the gradual closing up of China was paralleled by a decline of Chinese fashion in Europe.
Les voyageurs à Herculanum
Authors: Grell Chantal
Published: June 2016

Chant al Grell : Travellers at Herculanum.

The approximate site of Herculanum was located as early as the 16th Century, but excavations did not begin until 1738. The city, which was buried under a very thick, solid layer of lava, could not be uncovered ; the King of Naples therefore had hastily reinforced and badly-ventilated tunnels dug by convicts through the theatre, the forum and some houses, with the sole purpose of enriching the collections of the new museum at Portici. Several hundred travellers were given the privilege of going down into the city, but they were usually disappointed at seeing only some rather uninteresting pieces of wall. The buildings which were excavated during this period were — except for the theatre — covered up again to avoid landslides. They are still buried today and there are apparently no plans to uncover them.
L'observation du passage de vénus sur le soleil. Le voyage de Pingré dans l'Océan Indien
Authors: Racault Jean-Michel
Published: June 2016

Jean-Michel Racault : Pingré's voyage to the Indian ocean.

In view of the great scientific interest of the eclipse of the sun by Venus in 1761, the Académie des Sciences organised three distant expeditions, the least-known of which is that of the abbé Pingré to Rodrigez Island in the Mascarenes, an observation site finally decided on after lengthy discussions. His account, still unpublished, covers three subjects : firstly, the scientific investigation in which, curiously, the problem of longitude overshadows the astronomical observations ; secondly, an account of events on the trip and during the stay on Rodriguez, longer than foreseen due to Franco-British conflicts ; and thirdly a documentary report, interesting above all for what it says about the economic, political and human state of the French colonies in the Indian Ocean.
Sir Joseph Banks et l'envoi des naturalistes dans les explorations anglaises
Authors: Lacroix Sylvie
Published: June 2016

Sylvie Lacroix : Sir Joseph Banks and Scientific expeditions.

Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society for 42 years (1778-1820), ceaselessly sponsored naturalists on naval expeditions of exploration organised by the British government. He had created a model of scientific efficiency, above all in botany, and of cooperation between scientists and Royal Navy sailors when he took part, at his own expense, in Cook's first voyage ; he was accompanied by a team of 8, chosen by himself, which included Dr Solander, a pupil of Linnaeus. The Admiralty, although at first dubious, put him in charge of organisation and then of exploiting the results of all collection of natural science specimens on voyages, in particular those of Flinders and Vancouver. Until his death in 1810 he was seen as the spiritual heir of Cook, and thanks to him the Admiralty never questioned the presence of non-Navy scientists, like Darwin later on, on its ships.
Les langues dans les Mœurs des sauvages de Lafiteau
Authors: Albertan-Coppola Sylviane
Published: June 2016

Sylviane Albertan-Coppola : Languages in Lafitau's mœurs des sauvages

americains (1724).

J. -F. Lafitau's contribution to ethnology has often been studied, but rarely his place in Amerindian linguistics. For although Lafitau provides neither a vocabulary nor a grammar of the Huron and Iroquois languages, he knew them very well as he had been a missionary at Sault-Saint-Louis and his learned essay is dotted with useful remarks on philosophy, morphology and even syntax. Above all, paradoxically, his comparative method, which led him to draw parallels — for the purposes of apologetics — between Amerindian customs and those of ancient peoples, led to a fertile relativism. It enabled him to make valid scientific observations, particularly concerning the relationship between language, society and the notion of dialect.
Le passage de la Ligne, ou le carnaval de la mer : Luillier (1705), Léguât (1707)
Authors: Linon Sophy-Jenny
Published: June 2016

Sophy Jenny Linon : Crossing the line or the sea carnaval : Luillier (1705)

and Legat (1707). In the early 18th century, travel accounts often went beyond simple, direct facturai descriptions, as if they were trying, despite their claim to authenticity, to go back to the tradition of mythical accounts. Thus the 'baptism' ceremony celebrated when crossing the line — which is staged like a carnaval — proposes to restructure the vision of the world. This initiatory account which involves both crossing and diving, festival and exorcism, is marked by several symbolic reversals and indicates, beyond the apparent libertarian Utopia, that one is entering an upside-down world.
Sur l'hérésie dans la littérature clandestine
Authors: McKenna Antony
Published: June 2016

Antony Mckenna : Heresy in clandestine literature.

This article explores some of the latest research on clandestine manuscripts. Whereas the philosophical movement is often portrayed as a steady march towards Enlightenment, the author insists on the hesitant and stumbling steps of certain clandestine philosophers. The role of religious debate and theological squabbles is underlined ; various religious currents and sects — anti-Catholic polemics of the Marranos, Jewish messianism and Protestant millenarianism, the rationalism of Arminians and Socinians — all play a vital role in the development of philosophic rationalism. The 'radical Reformation' thus makes an essential contribution to clandestine Philosophy.
La Mettrie, lecteur et traducteur de Bœrhaave
Authors: Thomson Ann
Published: June 2016

Ann Thomson : La Mettriez Translation of Boerhaave.

La Mettrie's translation of Boerhaave's Institutiones medicœ, published between 1739 and 1750, was in fact a translation of Haller's second edition of the work, in which he freely mixes Boerhaave's lectures, a simplified version of Haller's notes, and his own comments. His claim to have added new material, after attending Boerhaave's lectures, is false, and he appropriates Haller's com¬ mentaries. His own additions essentially tend to add a materialistic colouring to the original, as is here shown with a series of examples. The main outlines of La Mettrie's materialism, to be presented in L'Homme machine, including the examples concerning irritability, are already present here.
L'âme et les passions dans la philosophie médicale de Georg-Ernst Stahl
Authors: Hoffmann Paul
Published: June 2016

Paul Hoffmann : The soul and the passions in Stahl's medical philosophy.

Stahl's Theoria Medica vera (1708) contains a non-Cartesian definition of the passions, which are understood not as bodily movements informing the soul about its situation in the world (which the soul has to adopt and control), but as movements induced in the soul by the soul itself. For Stahl the soul is both a guiding principle and a subject planning the aims of the living being, but whose axiological perspicacity is constantly disturbed by desires which it has itself exacerbated. For Stahl, a Pietist Halle professor, passion is both an amoral organic impulse and a mistaken judgement, and he adopts the Augustinian idea of the soul's original turpitude. All passions are pathogenic for both soul and body but the soul alone is responsible. We find here the elements of a psychoso¬ matic theory of disease which was to have a decisive effect on the Montpellier school in the 18th Century.
La méthode hallérienne en physiologie
Authors: Rudolph Gerhard
Published: June 2016

Gerhard Rudolph : Haller's physiological method.

The work of Albrecht von Haller, in the middle of the 18th Century, constitutes a turning-point in the study of vital phenomena. His method, expounded in numerous publications, helped by his didactic gifts, became the basis for modern biomedical research. On the one hand it is made up of critically analysed historical components (exhaustive bibliographies), and on the other it emphasizes methodical observation and highly rigorous experimentation. By adopting chemical and physical principles, he eliminated the prejudices and metaphysical speculation which still marred physiology, in order to achieve as great a degree of scientific certainty as possible. Thus the Swiss scientist, who was close to the Encyclopedists, can be seen as a defender of the Enlightenment, which he helped to spread beyond its historical limits.
L'harmonie imitative. Essai historique et anthropologique
Authors: Thibault Gabriel-Robert
Published: June 2016

Gabriel Thibault : Imitative harmony. A historical and anthropological essay.

This article discusses the formation of the concept of imitative harmony. First, a distinction is made between the authors (orators and critics) who discuss it implicitly and those who actually use the term. We see that there is an onomatopoeic imitative harmony — which presupposes a non-arbitrary language or sort of catalogue of reality — and a rhetorical one, in which language is seen as an instrument capable of evoking the qualities of a being, an object or an action by means of sound. The second part of the article, from the point of view of cultural anthropology, shows that the popularity of the concept in the second half of the century should be linked to the emphasis placed on reality by the Encyclopedists and the sensualists, and to a new sensitivity resulting from events in France.
Deux emplois du mot matérialisme : Christian Wolf et Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Authors: Deprun Jean
Published: June 2016

Two uses of the word "materialism" : Christian Wolff and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

First of all this article indicates that idealism and materialism appear in Wolffs works between 1720 and 1740 as two varieties of monism and not as constituting a universally valid dichotomy. Then it points out that, in 1762, Rousseau opposes idealism to materialism, giving the latter term a meaning which is derived directly from Berkeley. We conclude that we should beware of over-rigid classifications.
Matérialisme et hétérogénéité dans la philosophie de John Toland
Authors: Iofrida Manlio
Published: June 2016

Materialism and heterogeneity in Toland's philosophy.

In his Letters to Serena, Toland proposes a materialistic pantheism which breaks with Descartes's conception of passive matter, maintaining a sort of balance between vitalism and mechanism. In Pantheisticon, Toland's interest in biological problems, and references to geology and natural history, show a new attention to the problem of individuality and its relationship with totality or the world-system. This attention is confirmed by the atomism derived from CI. Bérigard's Circulus Pisanus. Thus, reason is at the centre of Toland's philosophy, but it is mainly the multifacious heterogeneous reason of biological science. That is why in Toland's concept of matter we find original differences and activity. Toland's conception of Being is marked by heterogeneity and dynamism, which shows that his thought, although classical in many respects, goes beyond classical metaphysics on some crucial points.
Matière, nature, mouvement chez d'Holbach et Toland
Authors: Lurbe Pierre
Published: June 2016

Matter, nature and movement in d'Holbach and Toland.

The first chapters of the Système de la nature, concerning matter and the laws of movement, reflect d'Holbach's reading and recent translation of Toland's Letters to Serena — in particular the idea that movement is essential to matter. But, while Toland means motive force, an attribute of matter as such, d'Holbach is instead referring to the mobility of individual bodies. Also, while matter is for the former a homogeneous substance and the only truly existing one, for the latter it is only a type of being and an abstract being. Thus instead of a single-substance monism he emphasizes the infinite diversity of bodies made up of primary elements taken from the chemistry of Stahl and Rouelle. Finally, while Toland is careful to describe matter in strictly physical and mechanistic terms, d'Holbach emphasizes Nature, which he tends to personify, thus running the risk of bringing back finalism, rejected elsewhere.