Family Name: Vaquette d'Hermilly
First Name: Nicolas-Gabriel
Birth Date: 1703
Birth Place: Paris
Death Date: Tue, Jan 27, 1778
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place To
Madrid 1740
Place From
Paris 1740
Personal info:
Education

Vaquette d'Hermilly's family was from Picardy.

While he initially studied in a Catholic seminary, he soon abandoned the idea of becoming a priest for lack of religious vocation.
Career

Besides his activities as a journalist and author, Vaquette d'Hermilly pursued a military career.

After having served in the Spanish army, he came back to France and became an inspector at the École militaire in Paris before assuming the role of royal censor.

He was a member of the Real Academia Española in Madrid.
Financial Situation

Not much is known of Vaquette d'Hermilly's financial situation.

However, in order to publish his novel Le paysan perverti (1775) Rétif de la Bretonne had to pay Vaquette d'Hermilly 25 louis to grease the wheels of the censorship process. The two worked together, with the latter making substantial changes to the original text, cutting the most problematic passages and adding a number of scenes de la Bretonne considered flat and anodyne. (Wyngaard 2013, 16).
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Vaquette d'Hermilly translated from Spanish and Portuguese, especially contributing to the dissemination of Spanish literary classics across Europe. His first translation, a French version of El perseguido (1604) from Lope de Vega, appeared in 1737 in abbé Prévost's literary journal Le pour et le contre. He later on also translated in collaboration with other men of letters, such as Rétif de la Bretonne and Jean François de la Harpe.

As a member of the Real Academia Española, Vaquette d'Hermilly mostly published French versions of the works of its past and present most illustrious members, like Augustín de Montiano or Juan de Ferreras' monumental Synopsis historica-cronológica de España (1700-27).

Annoyed by the cultural dominance of French and English literary models, Vaquette d'Hermilly's aim was to give deserved credit to the original Spanish authors "de qui Corneille, Molière & d'autres ont emprunté les sujets de plusieurs de leurs Piéces", through the creation of a "commerce littéraire" between France and Spain (from the preface to Dissertation).




secondary bibliography references

Françoise Weil, 'Vaquette d'Hermilly', Dictionnaire des journalistes (1600-1789)

Amy S. Wyngaard, Bad Books. Rétif de la Bretonne, Sexuality, and Pronography, University of Delaware Press, 2013, 15-16.

Francesca Suppa, «Le père trompé». Traduzioni e ricezione del teatro di Lope de Vega in Francia tra Seicento e Settecento. Con un'appendice su Manzoni, lettore di Lope de Vega, unpublished PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari/Universitat Autònoma de Barcellona, 2015.

Nicolás Bas Martín, Spanish Books in the Europe of the Enlightenment (Paris and London). A View from Abroad, Brill, 2018, 88, 96.

Translations

  • Synopsis historica chronologica de España

  • Translation Title: Histoire générale d'Espagne, traduite de l'espagnol de Jean de Ferreras, enrichie de notes historiques et critiques
  • Original Author: Juan de Ferreras
  • Original title: Synopsis historica chronologica de España
  • Publ. Year From: 1699 to: 1726
  • lang: Spanish
  • Translation: Histoire générale d'Espagne, traduite de l'espagnol de Jean de Ferreras, enrichie de notes historiques et critiques
  • Publisher: Gisset
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1741
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Vaquette d'Hermilly dedicated his translation to the Spanish king Philip V, through the patronage of the prince de Campo Florido, Spanish ambassador in France.

  • Teatro crítico universal, o Discursos varios en todo género de materias para desengaño de errores comunes

  • Translation Title: Théâtre critique, ou Discours différents sur toutes sortes de matières pour détruire les erreurs communes
  • Original Author: Benito Jerónimo Feijoo
  • Original title: Teatro crítico universal, o Discursos varios en todo género de materias para desengaño de errores comunes
  • Publ. Year From: 1726 to: 1739
  • lang: Spanish
  • Translation: Théâtre critique, ou Discours différents sur toutes sortes de matières pour détruire les erreurs communes
  • Publisher: Paul Clement
  • N° Editions: 2
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1741
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    This translation in incomplete, and includes only the first two volumes of the original.

  • Discurso sobre las tragedias españolas

  • Translation Title: Dissertation sur les tragédies espagnoles
  • Original Author: Agustín de Montiano y Luyando
  • Original title: Discurso sobre las tragedias españolas
  • Publ. Year From: 1749 to: 1752
  • lang: Spanish
  • Translation: Dissertation sur les tragédies espagnoles
  • Publisher: G. F. Quillau
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1753
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    A review of this volume appeared in the journal Année littéraire in 1754, criticizing Vaquette d'Hermilly's translation and de Montiano's thesis, arguing that most of the tragedies the latter presented in this collection were already translations of Greek tragedies (Suppa, 2015).

  • Juicio Imparcial sobre las Letras, en forma de Breve, que ha publicado la Curia Romana

  • Translation Title: Jugement impartial sur des lettres de la Cour de Rome en forme de bref
  • Original Author: Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes
  • Original title: Juicio Imparcial sobre las Letras, en forma de Breve, que ha publicado la Curia Romana
  • Publ. Year From: 1767 to:
  • lang: Spanish
  • Translation: Jugement impartial sur des lettres de la Cour de Rome en forme de bref
  • Pub. Place: Madrid
  • Pub. Date: 1769
  • Lang: French

  • El Buscón, Cartas del caballero de la Tenaza, Capitulaciones matrimoniales

  • Translation Title: Oeuvres choisies de don François de Quevedo. Traduites de l'espagnol ; en trois parties contenant Le Finmatois, Les lettres du chevalier de l'Epargne, La lettre sur les qualités d'un mariage
  • Original Author: Francisco de Quevedo
  • Original title: El Buscón, Cartas del caballero de la Tenaza, Capitulaciones matrimoniales
  • Publ. Year From: 1603 to: 1623
  • lang: Spanish
  • Translation: Oeuvres choisies de don François de Quevedo. Traduites de l'espagnol ; en trois parties contenant Le Finmatois, Les lettres du chevalier de l'Epargne, La lettre sur les qualités d'un mariage
  • Pub. Place: The Hague
  • Pub. Date: 1775
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Rétif de la Bretonne and Vaquette d'Hermilly modified the ending of Le Finmatois.

  • Os Lusíadas

  • Translation Title: La Lusiade de Louis Camoëns, poëme héroïque en dix chants, nouvellement traduit du portugais
  • Original Author: Luís Vaz de Camões
  • Original title: Os Lusíadas
  • Publ. Year From: 1571 to:
  • lang: Portuguese
  • Title: La Lusiade du Camoëns
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Year: 1734
  • Lang: French
  • Translation: La Lusiade de Louis Camoëns, poëme héroïque en dix chants, nouvellement traduit du portugais
  • Publisher: Nyon aîné
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1775
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    As shown in the preface, this version seems to have been composed from a previous French translation.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista