Jacques-André Naigeon
Jacques-André Naigeon (born July 15, 1738 in Paris , † February 28, 1810 ibid) was a French writer, publicist, late Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopedist .
Live and act
Jacques-André Naigeon initially tried his hand at drawing, painting and sculpture as a visual artist. Through his acquaintance with Denis Diderot , he became his admirer, pupil and imitator. La Harpe , who disliked Naigeon, referred to him as the monkey Diderot, who in the course of the conversation assumes his tone and manners.
Naigeon frequented the house of Baron Holbach , who appointed him as a secretary for the distribution of clandestine atheist writings. In particular, it was Naigeon's task to edit and edit the Holbach writings. Holbach was concerned about his safety and therefore never gave his own handwritten texts as printing templates from the company. The copyist was Naigeon's brother, a food controller from Sedan , who wrote Holbach's manuscripts on his 6-month annual vacation. Holbach's writings were published anonymously or under the pseudonym feu Mirabaud .
He worked on the Encyclopédie , which was written and organized by Denis Diderots and Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert and others.
Naigeon published his own works relatively late, in which he courageously wrote against dogmas, religious rites and the abuse of power by religious institutions, following his role models. Naigeon was a representative of a radical atheism, which consequently went further than his role models, rejecting a natural religion, a providence, the existence of a god, some kind of higher moral authority, the existence and immortality of a soul.
Entrusted with the publication of the philosophical part of the Encyclopédie méthodique , Naigeon championed the ideas of fatalism , materialism and atheism , mainly in the articles on Anthony Collins , Tommaso Campanella , Giulio Cesare Vanini and the Curé Jean Meslier . Naigeon was elected a member of the Institut de France in 1795 . He was rather passive in the meetings of the Académie. Naigeon got into illness, depression and financial hardship in the last years of his life. So he was forced to sell his well-known library, which had been built up over decades, well below its value.
Naigeon became the first editor , compiler and commentator of Diderot's work, and he became his first administrator. In 1798 he published an incomplete edition of Diderot's works and an appreciation of his oeuvre posthumously.
Works (selection)
- Le militaire filosophe, ou difficultés sur la religion proposées au RP Malebranche, prêtre de l'oratoire, par un ancien officier , without printer, Londres (Paris), 1768, 8 °, 200 pp.
- Dictionnaire de philosophie ancienne et moderne , 1791
- Mémoire sur la vie et les œuvres de Diderot , published posthumously in 1832
Naigeon published several works by Holbach, Diderot and other enlightened or ancient writers:
- Nicolas Frérèt: Lettre de Thrasibule à Leucippe. Ouvrage Posthume de M. F. Londres (Paris) no year (approx. 1768), 12 °, 252 pp.
- Baron Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach: Opinions Des Anciens Sur Les Juifs , without printer, without location, 1769., 8 °, 2 parts, (2), 127, (3), 129–238 pp.
- Baron Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach: Essai sur les préjugés, ou de l'influence des opinions sur les mœurs et sur le bonheur des Hommes. Ouvrage contenant l'Apologie de la philosophie par Mr DM without printer, London (Paris), 12 °, (2), 394 pp.
- Collection des moralistes anciens . Didot, Paris, 1782, 3 volumes in 12 °
- Oeuvres de Sénèque, traduites en françois par LA GRANGE; avec des notes de critique, d'histoire et de littérature (Naigeon). JJ Smits et Cie, Paris, 1795, 6 volumes in 8 °
- Oeuvres de Denis Diderot , Desray and Deterville, Paris, 1798, 15 volumes in 8 °
literature
- Jean Philibert Damiron: Mémoire sur Naigeon , 1857
- Ferdinand Hoefer : Nouvelle Biographie générale . Volume 37. Firmin-Didot, Paris 1863, pp. 133-138. (Main source of this article)
- Rudolf Brummer : Studies on French educational literature following J.-A. Naigeon. (Language and culture of the Germanic-Romanic peoples 11) Priebatsch, Breslau (1932)
Web links
- Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kafker, Frank A .: Notices sur les auteurs of 17 volumes de "discours" de l'Encyclopédie (suite et fin). Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année (1990) Volume 8 Numéro 8 pp. 106-107
- ↑ Biographical data from academie-francaise.fr ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Naigeon, Jacques-André |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gilbert, Nicolas Joseph Laurent |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French author, educator and publicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 15, 1738 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1810 |
| Place of death | Paris |