André Morellet
Contributions
- L'Italien, ou Le confessional des pénitens noirs. Par Anne Radcliffe, auteur de La forêt, ou L'abbaye de Saint-Clair, et des Mystères d'Udolpho. Traduit par André Morellet translation has translation translator
- Observations sur la Virginie, par M. J***, Traduites de l'Anglois paratext author
- Observations sur la Virginie, par M. J***. Traduites de l'Anglois translation has paratext translator
- Traité des délits et des peines translation translator
Knows
- Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria economist jurist politician professor writer
- Jeremy Bentham economist jurist philosopher publisher translator writer
- Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney freemason historian journalist philosopher politician professor
- Louis-Claude Chéron de la Bruyère playwright politician translator
- Denis Diderot editor philosopher translator writer
- Benjamin Franklin freemason politician publisher writer
- Richard Gem physician translator
- Sophie de Grouchy, marquise de Condorcet salonnière translator writer
- Anne-Catherine Helvétius salonnière
- Paul Henri Dietrich d'Holbach philosopher
- Thomas Jefferson philosopher politician translator writer
- Antoine-Jean-Noël Lallemant civil servant translator writer
- Jean Le Rond d'Alembert philosopher scientist writer
- Claude-François Maradan bookseller publisher
- Filippo Mazzei diplomat entrepreneur freemason journalist military pamphleteer physician teacher translator writer
- Giovanni Claudio Molini bookseller publisher
- Gabriel-Henri Nicolle bookseller journalist professor publisher
- Thomas Paine journalist philosopher revolutionary writer
- William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne economist military politician
- Anne-Louise-Germaine de Staël-Holstein philosopher salonnière traveller writer
- Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot civil servant freemason politician writer
- François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire philosopher writer
Member of
- Académie française academic institution
- Bowood Circle political organisation
- Cercle d'Auteuil, Helvétius Salon salon
- Cercle d'Holbach social organization
- De Condorcet, Sophie de Grouchy Salon salon
- Institut national des Sciences et Arts academic institution
- Les Neuf Soeurs masonic lodge
Notes
The youngest of fourteen children of a paper merchant from Lyon. Sent to the Sorbonne from his local Jesuit college to complete his studies, he placed fifteenth out of 120 candidates making him an outstanding student but lacking social prestige and also failed to secure a lucrative ecclesiastical post. Instead he was appointed tutor to the younger son of the marquis de Galaisiere at Plessis.
Began his writing career contributing articles to the 'Encyclopédie' criticizing the Church's "theological absurdities". Following a visit to Rome with his employer, he became noticed by the philosophes after publishing a critical translation of Nicolas Eymerich's handbook for the Inquisition (1375), a fashionable topic of the time, and gaining an entry into the leading Parisian salons. He made a living through his works on economics, the Priory of Thimert and his strenuous lobbying for pensions, including one from the Earl of Shelburne. During the Revolution, he lost all his sources of income apart from an annuity left by the salon hostess, Mme de Geoffrin, so he turned to paid work as a translator. His first commission came from his friend Lallemant, then working in the Ministry for Marine and the Colonies, who procured him a copy of Radcliffe's "The Italian', whose translation Morellet sold to Denné le jeune for 2000 livres.
For more on Morellet, see his 'Mémoires de l'abbé Morellet' (1821) and 'Mélanges de littérature et de philosophie' (1818, Lepetit). For more on his career as translator, see Dorothy Medlin, "André Morellet, Translator of Liberal Thought", in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, vol.174 (1978).