Claude-Adrien Nonnotte

Claude-Adrien Nonnotte , pen drawing inscribed Claude Francois Nonnotte by an unknown French artist, 18th century

Abbé Claude-Adrien Nonnotte , (born July 29, 1711 in Besançon , Doubs department ; † September 3, 1793 ibid), was a French Jesuit , preacher and writer .

Live and act

Nonnotte joined the Jesuit order at the age of 19 , to which he belonged until his death. He preached for the order in Amiens , Versailles and Turin . He was best known for his journalistic attacks on Voltaire . The latter used the slightly modified spelling "Nonotte" for the name of the opponent with satirical intent, analogous to renaming of other critics (Inclément instead of Clément or Sabotier instead of Sabatier). In 1762 Nonnotte published his best-known work, the "Erreurs de Voltaire" or, later, the "Examen critique ou Réfutation du livre des Moeurs" in which he meticulously demonstrated inaccuracies and alleged errors in Voltaire's "Essai sur les moeurs" published in 1756. Voltaire countered with the publication of the "Eclaircissements historiques", which Nonnotte in 1774 followed up with a "Réponse aux Éclaircissements historiques et aux additions de Voltaire".

After the classification of the Jesuit order as a terrorist organization and the subsequent repeal of the order in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV , Nonnotte settled again in Besançon. In 1772 he published his "Dictionnaire philosophique de la religion" in Avignon, which was supposed to represent an alternative to Voltaire's "Dictionnaire philosophique portatif" and rejected all objections to religion. Another volume in his trilogy of errors by Voltaire, "L'esprit de Voltaire dans ses ecrits", was not granted the privilege of the Paris censorship authority in 1779 due to its polemics . Clement XIII. and Alfonso Maria de Liguori applauded the pamphlets Nonnottes as they saw in them welcome tools against Voltaire and his friends. Contemporary German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Portuguese translations of Nonnotte's works are known. Posthumously in Besançon in 1819 a single edition, the "Oeuvres de Nonnotte", was published.

The only German-language monograph that dealt with Nonnotte in the 20th century is a dissertation suggested by Adolf Dyroff and written by him.

Works (selection)

• Les Erreurs de Voltaire, later title: Examen critique ou Réfutation du livre des moeurs Fez, Avignon, 1762, 2 volumes in 12 °, XXXII, 344 and 297 pp.
• Lettre à un ami sur les honnêtetés littéraires , (1766)
• Les Ereurs de Voltaire, nouvelle édition, revue, corrigée, augmentée, avec la réponse aux éclaircissements historiques et aux additions de Voltaire , Compagnie des libraires, Amsterdam, 1766, 8 °, (2), 48, 536, (4), ( 2), 475 and (2) p.
• Dictionnaire philosophique de la religion , (1772)
• L'emploi de l'argent , (1787)
• Le gouvernement des paroisses , (published posthumously in 1802)
• Les philosophes des trois premiers siècles de l´église , Gauthier, Besançon, published posthumously in 1819, 12 °, 480 pp.

literature

• Antoine Dégert: Claude-Adrien Nonnotte . In: The Catholic Encyclopedia , Vol. 11 . New York 1911.
• Johannes Breuer: Claude François Nonnotte SJ His importance as a philosophical opponent of the Enlightenment, especially Voltaire . Dissertation, University of Bonn 1933.