Jean Terrasson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Terrasson (also: Abbé Terrasson ; born January 31, 1670 in Lyon ; † September 15, 1750 in Paris ) was a French cultural philosopher and member of the Académie française .

life and work

Jean Terrasson came from a respected Lyon family. Two of his brothers became famous preachers as oratorians . He himself also became an oratorian in Paris, but then switched to mathematics and natural science and was a member of the Académie des Sciences from 1707 . In 1713 he took on an educational role that brought him more into connection with classical antiquity. As a result, he published a Homerkritik in 1715 , which caused a sensation.

In 1720 he took over the chair for Greek and Roman philosophy at the Collège Royal and in 1731 published the philosophical novel Sethos , which was translated into English and twice into German (by Christoph Gottlieb Wend and Matthias Claudius ). The novel brought Egypt into fashion and was one of the sources of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute . The Académie française elected him to seat no. 12 in 1732. In gratitude, he began translating Diodor's world history . Further works appeared posthumously. He died in 1750 at the age of 80.

Works

author

  • Dissertation critique sur l'Iliade d'Homère , où, à l'occasion de ce poème, on cherche les règles d'une poétique fondée sur la raison et sur les exemples des anciens et des modern. 2 vols. Paris 1715. Addition 1716. Geneva 1971.
    • (English) A critical dissertation upon Homer's Iliad. London 1722-1725.
  • Mémoire pour servir à justifier la Compagnie des Indes , contre la censure des casuistes qui la condamnent. 1720.
  • Sethos. Histoire ou vie tirée des monuments anecdotes de l'ancienne Egypte . 3 vols. Paris 1731, 1767, 1794, 1813.
    • (English) The life of Sethos. London 1732.
    • (Italian) Setosi, storia. Venice 1734.
    • (German) Outline of the true heroic virtue, or life story of Sethos, king in Egypt. Hamburg 1732-1737. (translated by Christoph Gottlieb Wend)
    • (German) story of the Egyptian king Sethos. Breslau 1777–1778. (translated by Matthias Claudius)
  • La philosophy applicable to us les objets de l'esprit et de la raison . Ouvrage en refléxions détachées. Paris 1754.
    • (German) The Abbot Terrasson's philosophy according to its influence on all objects of the mind and morals. Berlin 1756–1762. (translated by Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched )
  • (posthumously) Traité de l'infini créé . Edited by Antonella Del Prete. Champion, Paris 2007.

translator

  • (Translator) Histoire universelle de Diodore de Sicile . 7 vols. Paris 1737–1744. ( Diodorus )
  • (Translator, posthumously) Nicolas Chorier : Nouvelle traduction du Mursius, connu sous le nom d'Aloïsia ou de l'Académie des dames . 1775.

literature

  • Michael Bernsen: "Egypt in the French 18th century. The novel Sethos of the Abbé Terrasson". In: Barbara Kuhn (Ed.): Peripheral or polycentric? Alternative worlds of novels in the 18th century . Berlin 2009, pp. 31–44.
  • Hans-Diether Grohmann: Matthias Claudius as a translator for French-speaking writers . Neumünster 1995, pp. 24-27, 51-63, 240-298.
  • Maryse Marchal: La morale de l'Abbé Jean Terrasson (1670-1750) . Thèse de 3e cycle Littérature française. Nancy 2nd 1981.
  • Friedrich Wolfschrift: The French novel of the Enlightenment. Tübingen 2009, p. 59 ff.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Terrasson, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cultural philosopher and member of the Académie française
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1670
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1750
Place of death Paris