Guillaume Thomas François Raynal

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Guillaume Raynal

Guillaume-Thomas François Raynal , also Abbé Raynal (born April 12, 1713 in Lapanouse in the Rouergue , † March 6, 1796 in Passy ), was a French writer. He became famous for his History of Two Indies (1770), one of the most widely read writings of the Late Enlightenment .

Life

Histoire philosophique , 1794

After long studies with the Jesuits , Raynal became a priest in 1743 . In 1746 he went to Paris, where he took over the parish of Saint-Sulpice . A short time later he was tutor in leading families and came into contact with various political figures.

During this time he began to publish his first texts in the Nouvelles littéraires (1747–1755). From 1753 Friedrich Melchior Grimm continued the handwritten publications as Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique . Other works by Raynal were the Histoire du Stadhoudérat (1747) and the Histoire du Parlement d'Angleterre (1748).

In recognition of his services, he was appointed editor-in-chief ( directeur ) of the Mercure de France in 1750 . One of his protégés was the journalist Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard . On Sunday, October 6th, 1765 he met in Holbach's "Coterie" a. a. with Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach , Denis Diderot, Horace Walpole , Allan Ramsay and David Hume for dinner and conversation - which did not prevent Horace Walpole from writing to Henry Seymour Conway (1721–1795) in November 1774 that the Abbé Raynal is one of the most annoying creatures in the world.

In 1777 on May 25th he visited London . There he was present on May 30, 1777 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in a debate on the subject of the abolition of slavery . His trip to England also took him to Bristol in July 1777 , where he met his friend Edmund Burke .

In 1770 he published the first edition of his Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes - one India stands for eastern India or Asia, western India stands for the Caribbean and Latin America - which was later published by Denis Diderot collaborated. After it was banned in 1772, the Abbé Raynal published the Histoire de deux again in 1774. The new edition was immediately placed on the index by the clergy . The even more consistent third edition appeared in 1780.

In October 1781 he stayed temporarily in Switzerland in Vevey . The work was condemned by the Parlement of Paris on May 21, 1781 to be publicly burned by the executioner . But it had some success with readers.

Raynal was threatened. He fled and left France. His escape route took him via Belgium in July 1781 and from there to Mainz in March 1782, where he made the acquaintance of the envoy or chargé d'affaires of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces Georg Ernst Lucius (1736–1800) at the electoral court . At the beginning of April he then traveled via Frankfurt am Main , where he had his mail and correspondence forwarded, to Gotha and Weimar , where he arrived in April 1782. In Weimar he very likely met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Ultimately he found refuge with Frederick the Great in Prussia , where he watched over the reprint of his work. He wanted to erect a monument to the glory of freedom on the Rütli , which finally stood for 10 years on an islet near Lucerne .

In 1784 he returned to France and stayed in Toulon , then in Marseille . He established academic prizes that prolonged the success of his work in European academies. In view of the revolutionary events, he wrote a letter to the National Assembly on May 31, 1791 , in which he discussed the application of his ideas and reminded the new regime of its responsibilities. "... I have spoken to the kings, so please allow me to speak to the people of their errors today." Disparaged by the new rulers because of this statement, he was forgotten.

In 1795 he was elected a member of the Institut de France a few months before his death . Referring to his old age, he refused the election and died in Passy on March 6, 1796.

Portrait of Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, including a map of Virginia

He was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

In 1999 the asteroid (11039) Raynal was named after him.

Works

  • Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux, however. Amsterdam 1770, The Hague 1774, Geneva 1780.
  • The story of both India. Franz Greno, Nördlingen 1988, ISBN 3-8218-4042-0 , The Other Library series (selection).

literature

  • A. Jay: Précis historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de l'abbé Raynal. Paris 1820.
  • A. Feugère: Un Précurseur de la Révolution. L'Abbé Raynal (1713-1796). Angoulême 1922;
  • Raynal, de la polémique à l'histoire , G. Bancarel, G. Goggi ed. Oxford, SVEC, 2000.
  • Ottmar Ette : Literature in Motion. Space and dynamics of cross-border writing in Europe and America. Weilerswist 2001.
  • G. Bancarel: Raynal ou le devoir de vérité. Genève Champion, 2004.
  • Anoush Fraser Terjanian: Commerce and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought. Cambridge 2013.

Web links

Commons : Guillaume-Thomas Raynal  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2013 - ANNÉE RAYNAL, online
  2. ^ Robert Darnton: Literati in the underground. Reading, writing and publishing in pre-revolutionary France. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-446-13828-5 , p. 13.
  3. ^ A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies . 1798. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  4. ^ Adolf Bach: The satirist and diplomat Georg Ernst Lucius (1736/1800). Emil Semmel Verlag, 1964
  5. ↑ Hans Joachim Schmitt: News about the Abbé Raynal's stay in Germany in 1782. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History (ZHG) Volume 106 (2001), pp. 51–58, online (PDF; 50 kB)
  6. ↑ Margrit Wyder: "I hope it shouldn't come about." The short life of a Swiss Freedom Monument. In: NZZ , November 9, 2002 ( online version ).
  7. ↑ Proof of his membership in the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences
  8. ^ Document on the inclusion in the archives of the Royal Society , London
  9. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 1, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 36129
personal data
SURNAME Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raynal, Guillaume-Thomas François (full name); Raynal, Abbé
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH Lapanouse , Rouergue
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1796
Place of death Passy