Family Name: Banier
First Name: Antoine
Birth Date: Tue, Oct 31, 1673
Birth Place: Dallet
Death Date: Fri, Nov 17, 1741
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place
Paris
Personal info:
Education

After finishing his early studies in humanities with the Jesuits in Clermont-Ferrand, Banier moved to Paris to study philosophy.
Career

Due to his precarious economic situation, Banier started his career as tutor to the sons of Dumetz de Rosnay, Président de la Cour des comptes  in Paris. He quickly received the authorisation to use his employer's library and expand it, thus having access to many publications. The use he made of fables to provide his pupils with educative, moral and grammatical examples increased Banier's interest in mythology, which lasted all of his life and career as a writer and translator.

Banier was became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1713.
Financial Situation

Towards the end of his life, Banier had to sell his private library to pay for his medical expenses.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Banier is known for his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

secondary bibliography references

Histoire de l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres, avec les Mémoires de littérature tirés des registres de cette académie, vol. XVI, Paris, 1751, pp. 299-306.

C.F. Lambert, Histoire littéraire du règne de Louis XIV, vol. III, Paris, 1751, pp. 214-216.

M. N. Bouillet, ed., Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie, vol. I, Paris, 1869, pp. 170-171.

B. Feldman and R. D. Richardson, The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1972, pp. 86-92.

P. G. Bietenholz, Historia and Fabula: Myths and Legends in Historical Thought from Antiquity to the Modern Age, Leiden Brill, 1994, pp. 284-287.

A. Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 70-72.



Translations

  • Metamorphoseon libri

  • Translation Title: Les Métamorphoses
  • Original Author: Ovid
  • Original title: Metamorphoseon libri
  • Publ. Year From: -0001 to:
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: Les Métamorphoses
  • Publisher: Westein
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Date: 1731
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    This precious edition included Banier's translation and commentary, alongside the explanatory engravings from Bernard Picart, and is one of the most circulated and famous of the period.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista