Family Name: Guiraudet
First Name: Charles Philippe
Birth Date: Sun, Oct 27, 1754
Birth Place: Alès
Death Date: Sat, Feb 04, 1804
Death Place: Dijon
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Paris 1788 1798
Place From To
Dijon 1799 1803
Personal info:
Education

We do not know much about Guiraudet's education, except that he was raised in a half Catholic and half Protestant family.
Career

Early in his life, Guiraudet moved to Brittany to become the private tutor of the prince de Rohan-Rochefort and lecturer for Madame de Rohan-Rochefort.

In 1790, Guiraudet was nominated extraordinary deputy at the Assemblée Constituante for the commune of Alès, becoming involved in the early stages of the revolutionary process.

From this moment onwards, Guiraudet's professional trajectory was tightly connected to that of the Revolution: his political position in support of a constitutional monarchy and against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was initially close to that of the Feuillants club, but did not prevent him from being entrusted with public offices under the Republic. While firmly opposing the Terror, Guiraudet slowly moved closer to more radical positions, not unlike those of Condorcet or Siéyès, before embracing Bonapartism towards the end of his life.

Through the many régime changes of the 1790s, Guiraudet performed different public functions: at first secretary in chief of the Paris city council, he made a career as an attaché of the Navy department before his nomination as secretary general at the Ministry of foreign affairs under the Directoire. Taking advantage of his translation skills, Guiraudet soon became the main collaborator of the minister Charles-François Delacroix until the summer of 1797.

In the aftermath of the Coup of 18 Brumaire, Guiraudet moved to Dijon in 1800, where he was appointed préfet of the Côte-d'Or and administrated the department until his death in 1804.
Financial Situation

At his death, Guiraudet's wife Madame Condamin was granted a pension of six hundreds francs per year (Bulletin des lois de la République, 1804, 518).
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Guiraudet started his activities as a translator in the late 1780s, when he joined Mirabeau's famous atelier to produce a French version of Catherine Macaulay's History of England that achieved a certain initial success but was never published entirely.

However, Guiraudet's most famous translation is the complete works of Machiavelli, which he began after he lost his appointment at the Ministry of foreign affairs. Guiraudet's version remained an absolute reference text until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Both translations directly intervened in the political debates of their times, addressing the pressing issues that the Revolution was facing and offering a clear insight into Guiraudet's overall conservative political position (see translation works).

Mirabeau appreciated Guiraudet's capacities, saying of him "c'est un bon esprit, étamé de caractère" (Guyot, p. 75).

secondary bibliography references

"Toussaint Guiraudet", in Pierre Larousse, ed., Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, Paris, vol. VIII (1872), 1636.

Raymond Guyot, Le Directoire et la paix de l'Europe des traités de Bâle à la deuxième coalition (1795-1799), Alcan, 1912, 75-6.

Bernard Gainot, 'Lectures de Machiavel à l'époque du Directoire et du Triennio jacobin', in Paolo Carta and Xaxier Tabat, eds., Machiavel au XIXe et XXe siècles, CEDAM, 2007, 17-48.

Francesco Dendena, 'Histoire républicaine et conscience révolutionnaire', La Révolution française, 5 (2013).

Giuseppe Sciara, 'Guiraudet e Périès traduttori di Machiavelli alla luce della Rivoluzione: tra riabilitazione e usi politici', Laboratoire italien, 16 (2015).

Translations

  • Opere complete

  • Translation Title: Oeuvres de Machiavel. Traduction nouvelle par Tt. Guiraudet
  • Original Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Original title: Opere complete
  • lang: Italian
  • Title: Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli segretario e cittadino fiorentino
  • Publisher: Gaetano Poggiali
  • Pub. Place: Livorno
  • Pub. Year: 1795
  • Lang: Italian
  • Translation: Oeuvres de Machiavel. Traduction nouvelle par Tt. Guiraudet
  • Publisher: Pichard
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1798
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Guiraudet's translation initiated the liberal and patriotic interpretation of Machiavelli, which would become dominant in the nineteenth century. The version he provided had the aim of contrasting the Rousseauvian and radical republican reading of Machiavelli that fueled the Jacobin Terror a few years before. In a vein similar to that of the Segretario Fiorentino, Guiraudet sided with the Thermidorian reaction and the moderate views of the Directoire, with high hopes of getting a public appointment (Sciara 2015).

    The translation of the L'Arte della Guerra contained in this collection is from Claude Hochet, while M. Avenel translated the literary works Clizia and Mandragola.

  • The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line

  • Translation Title: Histoire d’Angleterre, depuis l’avènement de Jacques I jusqu’à la révolution, traduite en français et augmentée d’un discours préliminaire, contenant un précis de l’histoire d’Angleterre jusqu’à l’avènement de Jacques I, et enrichie de notes par Mirabeau
  • Original Author: Catharine Macaulay
  • Original title: The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line
  • Publ. Year From: 1762 to: 1782
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Histoire d’Angleterre, depuis l’avènement de Jacques I jusqu’à la révolution, traduite en français et augmentée d’un discours préliminaire, contenant un précis de l’histoire d’Angleterre jusqu’à l’avènement de Jacques I, et enrichie de notes par Mirabeau
  • Publisher: Gattey
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1790
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Undertaken in 1788, Mirabeau planned on publishing the translation of Macaulay's History under his name since 1785, as the original text was widely circulated in France.

    While Guiraudet completed the translation, Mirabeau wrote the additional notes for the first volume but was interrupted by the deflagration of the Revolution: as the construction of a new political order gained momentum, the meaning and purpose of the translation itself changed.

    In the preface to the third volume, Guiraudet gave a conservative reading of the History, warning his audience about the dangerous unfolding of events in the summer of 1791, to the point of defending the role of the House of Bourbon for a stable constitutional monarchy.

    Prophetically ending with the execution of Charles I, the publication of the Histoire was never completed after the bankruptcy of the publisher Gattey (Dendena, 2013).

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