Family Name: Mérian
First Name: Jean-Bernard
Birth Date: Mon, Sep 27, 1723
Birth Place: Liestall (Basel)
Death Date: Wed, Feb 11, 1807
Death Place: Berlin
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Basel 1736 1743
Place From To
Amsterdam 1743 1749
Place From To
Berlin 1749 1806
Personal info:
Education

The son of a pastor, Mérian moved to Basel in 1737, where he studied philology and philosophy at the university until he obtained his doctorate in 1740.

For a brief period he turned to theology, without success.
Career

Mérian applied to Basel University and was rejected four times, before going to Amsterdam, where he worked as a private tutor.

In 1750, thanks to the recommendation of Johann Bernoulli and Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, he was nominated member of the Académie des Sciences et des Belles-Lettres in Berlin, as a member of the class of speculative philosophy. In 1767 he became inspector of the French collegium, while from 1771 he acted as the director of the class of Belles-lettres of the Académie. In 1797 he became permanent secretary of the Academy.

In 1770, he gained access to the court of Frederick the Great through his marriage.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Although he translated literary volumes and poetry from Latin, Italian and German, Mérian's most famous translation is from English into French and includes the works of David Hume, constituting the five translations to be found under the collective name of Oeuvres philosophiques de Mr D. Hume.  The main reason behind this enterprise was the shared need to counter the strong current of Wolffian philosophy in German academia. Mérian himself, however, did not completely dentify with either Humean empirical rationalism or with Christian Wolff's traditional metaphysics, choosing an eclectic middle ground as his own position.

secondary bibliography references

C. von Prantl, 'Merian, Jean Bernard', Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 21, Berlin, 1885, pp. 428-430.

P. Jones, The Reception of David Hume In Europe, London, Bloomsbury, 2005, pp. 94-95, 104-106.

A. S. Lifschitz, Language and Enlightenment: The Berlin Debates of the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 92, 120-122.

A. S. Lifschitz, 'Translation in theory and practice: the case of Johann David Michaelis's prize essay on language and opinion', in S. Stockhorst, ed., Cultural Transfer Through Translation: The Circulation of Enlightened Thought in Europe by Means of Translation, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2014, pp.



Translations

  • Philosophical essays: concerning human understanding. By the author of the Essays moral and political.

  • Translation Title: Essais Philosophiques Sur L'Entendement Humain, Par Mr. Hume
  • Original Author: David Hume
  • Original title: Philosophical essays: concerning human understanding. By the author of the Essays moral and political.
  • Publ. Year From: 1747 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Essais Philosophiques Sur L'Entendement Humain, Par Mr. Hume
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Date: 1757
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    This constitutes the first and the second of five translations that collect the whole of Hume's philosophical treatises.

  • Four Dissertations

  • Translation Title: Histoire naturelle de la religion + Dissertations sur les passions, sur la tragédie, sur la règle du goût
  • Original Author: David Hume
  • Original title: Four Dissertations
  • Publ. Year From: 1756 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Histoire naturelle de la religion + Dissertations sur les passions, sur la tragédie, sur la règle du goût
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Date: 1757
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Hume's original is splitted in two different and selfstanding tomes, which constite the parts three and four of the five volumes translated by Mérian.

    The complete titles are:

    Histoire naturelle de la religion. Traduit de l'anglois de Mr. D. Hume, avec un examen critique et philosophique de cet ouvrage, Amsterdam, 1758

    Dissertations sur les passions, sur la tragédie, sur la règle du goût. Traduit de l'anglais de Mr. D. Hume, Amsterdam, 1759

  • An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

  • Translation Title: Essais de morale, ou Recherches sur les principes de la morale
  • Original Author: David Hume
  • Original title: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
  • Publ. Year From: 1750 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Essais de morale, ou Recherches sur les principes de la morale
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Date: 1759
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    This is the fifth translation out of five by Mérian.

  • Ueber den Einfluss der Sprachen auf die Meinungen der Menschen

  • Translation Title: De l'influence des opinions sur le langage et du langage sur les opinions. Dissertation qui a remporté le prix de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles lettres de Prusse, en 1759, par M. Michaëlis
  • Original Author: Johann David Michaelis
  • Original title: Ueber den Einfluss der Sprachen auf die Meinungen der Menschen
  • Publ. Year From: 1758 to:
  • lang: German
  • Translation: De l'influence des opinions sur le langage et du langage sur les opinions. Dissertation qui a remporté le prix de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles lettres de Prusse, en 1759, par M. Michaëlis
  • Pub. Place: Bremen
  • Pub. Date: 1761
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Michaelis, Prémontval and Mérian collaborated during three years to produce a French translation of the original text, exchanging suggestions and ideas.

  • De raptu Proserpinae

  • Translation Title: L'Enlèvement de Proserpine, poème de Claudien, traduit en prose françoise, avec un discours sur ce poète, et des remarques, par M. Mérian
  • Original Author: Claudian
  • Original title: De raptu Proserpinae
  • Publ. Year From: -0001 to:
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: L'Enlèvement de Proserpine, poème de Claudien, traduit en prose françoise, avec un discours sur ce poète, et des remarques, par M. Mérian
  • Pub. Place: Berlin
  • Pub. Date: 1766
  • Lang: French

  • Kosmologische Briefe

  • Translation Title: Système du monde, traduction abrégée
  • Original Author: Jean-Henri Lambert
  • Original title: Kosmologische Briefe
  • Publ. Year From: 1764 to:
  • lang: German
  • Translation: Système du monde, traduction abrégée
  • Pub. Date: 1769
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Published in a 1765 journal in German, Lambert's letters were translated by Mérian in order to widen their diffusion across Europe.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista