Journal de Trévoux

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Title page of the first edition, January / February 1701

The Journal de Trévoux or Mémoires pour l'Histoire Des Sciences & des beaux-Arts is a magazine that appeared monthly between 1701 and 1767. It was published by members of the Jesuit order , printed and distributed in the city of Trévoux in what is now the Ain department .

The magazine was conceived as a comprehensive science journal in which new publications from all areas of science, from history, literature and linguistics, law, canon law, theology, philosophy, economics, mathematics, physics, astronomy and, to a lesser extent, from the beautiful Arts and fiction were presented and discussed.

background

After the Edict of Fontainebleau , with which Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes , the Protestants began to spread their ideas outside of France, especially in the neighboring northern countries in magazines. In response to this, Denis de Sallo , advisor to parliament and close to the Jansenist circles at court, founded the Journal des Savants , the very first science journal in Europe , under the patronage of Colbert . The journal appeared at irregular intervals: Current scientific publications were discussed. Polemics against Rome soon led to violent reactions from the Church.

The Jesuits, who, unlike the Jansenists, were unable to assert themselves at the French court, then founded their own scientific journal outside the sphere of influence of the crown, in the town of Trévoux in southern France.

The journal

In March 1701 the first issue of the magazine appeared under the title Mémoires pour l'Histoire Des sciences et des beaux Arts , mostly cited in the abbreviated form as Mémoires de Trévoux or Journal de Trévoux , printed by Jean Boudot in Trévoux. Trévoux was in the territory of the Duke of Maine and Prince of Dombes, Louis Auguste de Bourbon , who at that time was still independent of the French central power.

Because of quarrels with the court, the duke revoked his printing privilege in 1730, and the Jesuits relocated their editorial office to Lyon and in 1734 to Paris , but kept the name Trévoux as the printing location. By 1767, a total of 878 issues of the magazine had been delivered.

Editorial staff and staff

The journal's numerous employees were mostly recruited from the Jesuit order and the majority remained anonymous . The responsible editors and some of the most important employees are known by name. Among them were the mathematician Louis-Bertrand Castel ; the poet and man of letters Jean-Antoine du Cerceau ; Pierre Brumoy , historian and explorer; the philosopher and humanist scholar Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix ; the historian and philosopher Claude Buffier ; and Barthélemy Mercier de Saint-Léger (1734–1799), author, bibliographer and librarian who campaigned vigorously in the 1790s to save the public and private libraries threatened by the turmoil of the French Revolution .

From 1745 to 1762 Guillaume François Berthier played a key role in shaping the tenor of the paper. He was replaced by Mercier, who published it for two years. The publication of the magazine was stopped under his successor Jean-Louis Aubert , but a successor publication appeared as early as 1768 under the title Journal des sciences et des beaux-arts with Aubert as editor. From 1776 the owners changed several times, the paper lost quality and subscribers. In 1779 the title changed again, it was now called Journal de Littérature, des Sciences et des Arts . In 1782 it was finally given up.

Title page of the Encyclopédie
Système figuré from the Prospectus

The Journal and the Encyclopédie

In 1751 the first volume of Diderot's Encyclopédie was published with the aim of collecting and explaining all the knowledge of the time. From 1704 onwards, the Jesuits had started a similar company, the Dictionnaire de Trévoux , and the Journal carefully observed the rival company. The journal announced the new publication as early as 1751 and in the following issue criticism is made of the tree of knowledge (= Système figuré des conniossances humaines ) of the Prospectus of 1750 on the encyclopedia, which essentially follows Francis Bacon without naming him as a source. The allegation of plagiarism was in the room. As a result, sharp arguments broke out between Diderot and Berthier as spokesmen for the journal. Between 1751 and 1753, the journalists list the encyclopedists in 11 reviews, a total of 252 articles in which the authors made use not only of the Jesuit Dictionnaire , but also other dictionaries such as Louis Moréris Encyclopédie , the Dictionnaire universel de commerce of the brothers Savary and from other reference works have taken over entire passages verbatim. The journalists are of the opinion that it is legitimate to rely on the knowledge of other authors and to use their publications, but denounce verbatim copying, the lack of critical distance from their sources and, above all, the concealment of the sources. One always has to cite the sources of the knowledge so that every reader is able to question them himself.

As for the content of the Encyclopédie, the Journal praises the originality and quality of the articles on science and technology, specifically the areas of architecture, music, grammar, mathematics and surgery. The situation is different with theological and philosophical topics and areas that affect church doctrine .

literature

  • Isaac Disraeli : The dictionary of Trevoux . ( PDF )
  • Emmy Allard: The attacks against Descartes and Malebranche in the Journal de Trévoux . Hall a. S .: Niemeyer, 1914 (treatises on philosophy and its history / edited by Benno Erdmann ; issue 43). Reprint: Hildesheim: Olms, 1985, ISBN 978-3-487-07611-9
  • Cyril O'Keefe: A Jesuit Journal in the Age of the Enlightenment . In: Canadian Catholic Historical Association. Report, 23. 1956. pp. 53-56. pdf
  • Christian Albertan: Les journalistes de Trévoux lecteurs de l'encyclopédie . In: Recherches sur Diderot et l'encyclopédie. No. 23, 1991. pp. 107-116. pdf

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Publication dates on Pagesperso-Orange.fr (accessed March 15, 2010)
  2. ↑ Albertan 1991. pp. 109, 110.
  3. ↑ "Ainsi doit-on toujours indiquer les sources du sçavoir, afin de rendre à chacun ce qui lui appartient, et de mettre les lecteurs en voie de consulter les écrits primitifs." Journal de Trévoux, December 1751, p. 2608.
  4. ↑ Albertan 1991. p. 115.