Family Name: Morellet
First Name: André
Birth Date: Wed, Mar 05, 1727
Birth Place: Lyon
Death Date: Sun, Jan 10, 1819
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place
Paris
Personal info:
Education

Morellet received his early education in humanities fromo the Jesuits in Lyon, before being sent to Paris in 1741, where he took  holy orders and became an abbot at the Collège des Trente Trois. He then studied theology at the Sorbonne for five years, taking his degree in 1752.

Morellet later dedicated himself to the study of languages, public law and political economy.
Career

Morellet did not pursue an ecclesiastic career, but became the preceptor of Chaumont de la Galaizière for a couple of years. He accompanied the latter in Italy (1758-1759) to complete his education and took advantage of his role to learn English and Italian himself.

Back in Paris, he contributed to the Encyclopédie and in 1760 he spent two month in the Bastille prison for the publication of an offensive pamphlet. Morellet frequented assiduously the Parisian literary salons of du Deffand, de Brienne and Necker, creating an extensive network of acquaintances.

In 1772, he made his first trip to London to visit Lord Shelburne and became a medium of diplomatic communications with English statesmen.

Morellet was elected member of the Academie Française in 1785 and contributed to edit its Dictionnaire.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Morellet translated an impressive quantity of works, from Italian, English and Latin into French. He worked on novels and treatises on a variety of different subjects. He most famously produced a bestselling free translation of Cesare Beccaria's Dei delitti e delle pene, a version of Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia and of William Robertson's History of America.

Morellet also translated Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, but never published his translation.


secondary bibliography references

A. Morellet, Mémoires de l'abbé Morellet, de l'Académie Française, sur le dix-huitième siècle et sur la révolution précédés de l'Éloge de l'abbé Morellet, par M. Lémontey, Paris, 1821

Biographie nouvelle des contemporains ou Dictionnaire historique et raisonné de tous les hommes, Paris, 1820-1825, vol. XIV, pp. 141-151.

J. Pandolfi, 'Beccaria traduit per Morellet', Dix-Huitième Siècle, 9 (1977), pp. 291-316.

D. Medlin and J. Merrick, eds., André Morellet (1727-1819) in the Republic of Letters and the French Revolution, New York, Peter Lang, 1995.

D. Medlin, 'André Morellet's Library', Libraries & Culture, 31, n°3/4 (1996), pp. 574-602.

Id., André Morellet, the "Journal de Paris" and "Le Publiciste", 1795-1807, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2005.

Kathleen Hardesty Doig, « André Morellet (1727-1819) », Les contributeurs, Édition Numérique Collaborative et CRitique de l’Encyclopédie, http://enccre.academie.sciences.fr.


Translations

  • Directorium Inquisitorum

  • Translation Title: Le Manuel des inquisiteurs à l'usage des inquisitions d'Espagne et de Portugal
  • Original Author: Nicholas Eymerich
  • Original title: Directorium Inquisitorum
  • Publ. Year From: 1375 to:
  • lang: Latin
  • Title: Directorium Inquisitorum
  • Pub. Place: Rome
  • Pub. Year: 1577
  • Lang: Latin
  • Note:

    In his Memoires, Morellet cites this volume as his source (pp. 58-59)

  • Translation: Le Manuel des inquisiteurs à l'usage des inquisitions d'Espagne et de Portugal
  • Pub. Place: Lisbon (i. e. Paris)
  • Pub. Date: 1761
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    In this volume, Morellet also included bits and parts from the Portuguese Luis Pàramo's De origine et progressu officii sanctae inquisitionis (Madrid, 1598). This might explain the fictional printing place.

  • Ricerche intorno alla natura dello stile

  • Translation Title: Recherches sur le style
  • Original Author: Cesare Beccaria
  • Original title: Ricerche intorno alla natura dello stile
  • Publ. Year From: 1769 to:
  • lang: Italian
  • Translation: Recherches sur le style
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1770
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Morellet's preface testifies both for the great admiration for Beccaria's ideas and for several difficulties in translating the most abstract among them.

  • Dei delitti e delle pene

  • Translation Title: Traité des délits et des peines traduit de l'italien, d'après la troisieme edition revue, corrigée & augmentée par l'auteur
  • Original Author: Cesare Beccaria
  • Original title: Dei delitti e delle pene
  • Publ. Year From: Mon, Jul 09, 1764 to:
  • lang: Italian
  • Title: Dei delitti e delle pene
  • Pub. Place: Livorno
  • Pub. Year: Feb, 1765
  • Lang: Italian
  • Note:

    This version contains different additions that Beccaria himself sent to D'Alembert to be transmitted to Morellet.

  • Translation: Traité des délits et des peines traduit de l'italien, d'après la troisieme edition revue, corrigée & augmentée par l'auteur
  • Pub. Date: 1764
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Morellet's version had an incredibly wide diffusion and Beccaria acknowledged this translation contributed greatly to his fame.

    However, this translation was severly criticised for the substantial interventions by Morellet, who thought Beccaria's text needed to be clarified. He did not hesitate to change the structure of the original, splitting, moving and merging chapters and sections, to the point of authoring an altogether different book. Apparently, Beccaria approved of these modifications.

  • A father’s legacy to his daughters

  • Translation Title: Legs d'un père à ses filles
  • Original Author: John Gregory
  • Original title: A father’s legacy to his daughters
  • Publ. Year From: 1773 to:
  • lang: English
  • Title: A father’s legacy to his daughters
  • Pub. Place: London and Edinburgh
  • Pub. Year: 1773
  • Lang: English
  • Translation: Legs d'un père à ses filles
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1773
  • Lang: French

  • Notes on the State of Virginia

  • Translation Title: Observations sur la Virginie
  • Original Author: Thomas Jefferson
  • Original title: Notes on the State of Virginia
  • Publ. Year From: 1784 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Observations sur la Virginie
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1785
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    The original Notes were written in 1781, and Morellet used a 1782 version of the text to prompt his translation.

  • The Italian or The confessional of the black penitents

  • Translation Title: L'Italien, ou Le confessional des pénitens noirs
  • Original Author: Ann Radcliffe
  • Original title: The Italian or The confessional of the black penitents
  • Publ. Year From: 1796 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: L'Italien, ou Le confessional des pénitens noirs
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1796
  • Lang: French

  • The Children of the Abbey

  • Translation Title: Les enfants de l'abbaye
  • Original Author: Regina Maria Roche
  • Original title: The Children of the Abbey
  • Publ. Year From: 1795 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Les enfants de l'abbaye
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1796
  • Lang: French

  • The History of America: Containing the history of Virginia to the year 1688, and the history of New England to the year 1652

  • Translation Title: Histoire de l'Amérique, livres IX et X contenant l'histoire de la Virginie jusqu'à l'année 1688 et celle de la Nouvelle-Angleterre jusqu'en 1652. Ouvrage posthume de feu Robertson.
  • Original Author: William Robertson
  • Original title: The History of America: Containing the history of Virginia to the year 1688, and the history of New England to the year 1652
  • Publ. Year From: 1795 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Histoire de l'Amérique, livres IX et X contenant l'histoire de la Virginie jusqu'à l'année 1688 et celle de la Nouvelle-Angleterre jusqu'en 1652. Ouvrage posthume de feu Robertson.
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1797
  • Lang: French
calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista