Nicolas Gueudeville and His Work (1652-172?)

293 Pages·1982·11.032 MB·English

by  Aubrey Rosenberg (auth.)

NICOLAS GUEUDEVILLE AND HIS WORK
(l652-172?)
ARCHIVES INTERNA TIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNA TIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
99
AUBREY ROSENBERG
NICOLAS GUEUDEVILLE
AND HIS WORK
(16S2-172?)
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Washington Univ. St. Louis)
Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); J.F. BattaiI (Upsala); 1. Collins (St. Louis Univ.);
P. Costabel (Paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); I. Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine-Verwey
(Amsterdam); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); T. Gregory (Rome); T.E. Jessop
(Hull); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia Univ.); Elizabeth Labrousse
(paris); A Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); 1. Orcibal (paris); Wolfgang Rod
(Munchen); J. Roger (Paris); H. Rowen (Rutgers Univ., N.J.); Ch.B. Schmitt (Warburg
Inst. London); J.P. Schobinger (Zurich); G. Sebba (Emory Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton
(Oxford); J. Tans (Groningen).
NICOLAS GUEUDEVILLE
AND HIS WORK
(1652-172?)
by
AUBREY ROSENBERG
•
. .
~
. .
1982
MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS
THE HAGUE ! BOSTON / LONDON
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Librar~' of ('ongrf"~~ ('atalo,i;:(ing in Publil'ation Data
Rosenberg, Aubrey.
Nicolas Gueudevi11e and his ~ork (1652-172?)
(Archives internationa1es d'histoire des id~es
International archives of the history of ideas ;
99)
Bibliography: :.
Includes index.
1. Gueudevi11e, Nicolas, ca. 1654-ca. 1721.
2. Authors, French--18th century--Biography.
I. Title. II. Se~ies: Archives internationales
d'histoire des idees; 99.
PQ1987.G49Z8) 848' .409 81-11319
AACR2
ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7475-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7473-9
001: 10.1007/978-94-009-7473-9
Copyright © 1982 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague.
Sojicover reprint a/the hardcover 1st edition 1982
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers, Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers, P.O. Box 566,250] CN The Hague, The Netherlands.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No study of this kind would be possible without the cooperation of librarians
and archivists in many parts of the world. Those who have helped me are too
numerous to mention individually, but I must offer my profound gratitude to
Dr. J,J. van der Roer-Meyers, Gemeente Bibliotheek, Rotterdam, Dr. LH. van
Eeghen, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst, Amsterdam, and Monsieur Jacques-Yves
de Sallier Dupin, Bibliotheque Municipale, Nantes.
I should also like to acknowledge the help of Professors J .M. Bigwood and
K.R. Thompson of the Classics department, University of Toronto, Drs. H.M.B.
Jacobs of the Gemeentearchief, The Hague, Dr. A.J. Veenendaal Jr. of the
Bureau der Rijkscommissie voor Vaderlandse Geschiedenis and Professor DJ.
Roorda of the University of Leiden. I am grateful to Drs. M.M. Hutcheson and
J. Svilpis of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of
Toronto, for tolerating my excessive intrusions on their time, and to Mrs. E.
Scharbach who assisted me, as she has done many times before, by typing my
scrawl, and by interpreting Dutch texts. Finally, I should like to express my
heartfelt thanks to my colleague, Professor D.W. Smith, who has helped me once
again, especially in the field of bibliography. This book was made possible by
a Canada Council Leave Fellowship, 1977-1978, and has been published with
the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using
funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada.
A NOTE ON THE TEXT
Unless otherwise indicated, the spelling is modernized except in the descriptions
of title-pages. In these descriptions the use of large capitals is not noted.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FOR LIBRARIES
A-Athenaeum; Ar-Arsenal; B-Beinecke; BC-Bibliotheque Classee; BI-Bibliotheque
de l'Institut; BL-British library; BN-Bibliotheque Nationale; C-Central;
CA-Calvet; CU-Catholic University; ETH-Swiss Federal Insitute of Technology;
FU-Free University; H-Humboldt University; HA-Herzog August; I-Inguimbertine;
ISG-Insituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis; JH-Johns Hopkins; KM-Karl Marx;
L-Land; li-library; M-Municipal; Ma-Mazarine; McM-McMaster University;
N-National; Ne-Newberry; P-Public; R-Royal; RC-Renaissance Centre; RF
Rosenbach Foundation; Ro-Rocheguide; S-State; SMC-St. Michael's College;
SMU-Southern Methodist University; So-Sorbonne; StJ.-St. John's College;
TF-Thomas Fisher; TI-Taylor Institution; U-University; UC-University College;
UCa-University of California; UnC-Union College; UTS-Union Theological
Seminary; V-Vassar; VC-Victoria College; WLC-William L. Clements.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VI
A NOTE ON THE TEXT VI
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I. The Life 3
II. The First Publication 11
III. L 'Esprit des cours de l'Europe 17
IV. The Critique of Fenelon's Telernaque 35
V. Dialogues des morts 63
VI. Collaborative Works 79
VII. The Translations 98
VIII. Works attributed to Gueudeville 123
CONCLUSION 138
APPENDIX A. Contract of sale of rights to L 'Esprit des cours de l'Europe 140
B. Contract of partnership between Jonas L'Honore and
Thomas Johnson 142
C. Dissolution of partnership 145
D. Check-list of editions of critique of Telemaque 147
E. List of editions and locations of the Atlas historique 164
F. Check-list of editions of L 'Eloge de la folie 167
G. list of editions of L 'Utopie 208
ARCHIVES 213
BIBLIOGRAPHY 214
INDEX 279
To Yvonne and Michelle
INTRODUCTION
It is generally agreed that great men transcend their time while ordinary men
remain rooted in it. This is why, if we want to know what life was like in days
gone by, we must study those who were most representative of their age, those
individuals who, though they may have achieved a modicum of fame or
notoriety, are now, because of their limited abilities and outlook, largely
forgotten.
The great figures involved in the political and religious controversies that took
place in Holland! towards the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning
of the eighteenth, men such as Bayle, Jurieu, Le Clerc and others who were in
the forefront of what has been aptly termed as the "crise de la conscience
europeenne," these figures have been the object of extensive investigation.
The minor personages of this period, on the other hand, have received little
attention. For this reason, in a previous study,2 I examined the life and work of
one of these minor figures, and tried to show how he was representative of those
French Huguenots who came to Holland in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, who settled in relatively remote places, and who made an effort to
integrate themselves and gain acceptance in Dutch provincial society.
The majority, however, like most refugees and first-generation immigrants,
tended to stay together. They settled in the major cultural, political and
commercial centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden and The Hague, where
they could continue to speak their own language and carryon their customs, and
where there was no obligation to assimilate. There was, nonetheless, the necess
ity to earn a living. Many of these French Huguenots possessed no readily
marketable skills, and they had to make the most of their native abilities,
supplemented by whatever education they had been able to acquire before
their exile. Fortunately, Holland, during the last quarter of the seventeenth
century, had become the intellectual centre of Europe. As a result, the book
trade was at its height, so there were great opportunities and a great demand for
the talented, and the not so talented, in the republic ofletters:
Many Huguenots with a knowledge of French and Latin were able to win a
temporary meal-ticket, and to make the vital, initial break-through into the
world of letters ... by taking on work as proof correctors or/and translators.
Opportunities for translating were numerous, not only translating books, but
also, in the expanding world of journalism, translating foreign news.3
2
It was in this world of letters that the great names I have mentioned made
their outstanding contributions to the process that would later be known as the
Enlightenment. But for every Bayle or I.e Clerc there were scores of lesser lights
whose achievements only occasionally rose above the level of the mediocre, and
whose reputations died with them. These men were followers not leaders. They
were the unknown soldiers who helped to undermine the political and religious
conventions of their time.
To represent these unsung warriors I have chosen, for this present study,
Nicolas Gueudeville, a Benedictine monk who renounced his religion and settled
in Holland towards the end of the century. At fIrst glance it seems perverse to
choose an ex-monk to represent a certain class of Huguenots, but it should be
remembered that the moines de/roques, of whom there was an abundance in
Holland at this time, were welcomed into the Walloon Churches where, in the
manner of converts, they frequently displayed a hatred of France and
Catholicism more violent than that expressed by the Huguenots themselves.
Gueudeville is also representative because of his energy and versatility.
During the course of his career he was involved in all kinds of polemical litera
ture including journalism, literary criticism, editing and contributing to the work
of others. He also did popular translations of classical and Renaissance authors.
In short, he participated in all those activities by which so many of his compat
riots earned their daily bread.
Although the name of Gueudeville is now relatively unknown, in his own day
he was a notorious fIgure in the republic of letters, and numbered amongst his
friends some of the most prominent writers of his time. But, because he was an
imitator rather than an original thinker, his works have fallen into obscurity.
Nevertheless, his life and work are so typical of so many exiles of the period
that, through the study of this one obscure individual, we are able to gain some
appreciation of an important aspect of the French Huguenot experience in
Holland.