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New translation of Volney's Ruins or Meditations on the Revolution of Empires

1802-11 Subjects: Anti-clericalism, History, Human rights, Philosophy, Politics and government, Religion Forms: Essays Translation Status: Integral, Retranslation English Paris URL

Authors of source text

Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney

Contributions

Anonymous (Joel Barlow): translator
Anonymous (Thomas Jefferson): translator
L'Imprimerie de la rue de Vaugirard (English Press): publisher
François-Laurent-Xavier Levrault: bookseller

Related resources

is translation of: Les ruines ou Méditation sur les révolutions des empires has translation
has other edition: New translation of Volney's Ruins or Meditations on the Revolution of Empires. Made under the inspection of the author translation
has paratext: New translation of Volney's Ruins or Meditations on the Revolution of Empires paratext

Held by

British Library

Notes

Volney was not satisfied with the 1792 translation and, from 1795 onwards, sought to establish a new translation under his supervision. However, before the new translation appeared, a pirated "new" translation appeared in Philadelphia in 1799.

According to Caron, Jefferson translated the invocation and chapters 1-19, Barlow chapters 20-24. Jefferson explicitly requested that his participation remain unmentioned as he feared his collaboration on such a (deist) work might be used by his political opponents to attack him.

Its publisher John Hurford Stone was responsible for its dissemination in America, sending a copy to Jefferson on 21 March 1803. This translation became the standard one for future reprints and was treasured, by amongst others, future president Abraham Lincoln and the poet Walt Whitman.

Nathalie Caron, ‘Friendship, Secrecy, Transatlantic Networks and the Enlightenment. The Jefferson-Barlow Version of Volney’s Ruines (Paris, 1802)’, in Mémoires du livre. Studies in Book Culture, Vol.11, No.1 (Autumn 2019), pp.1-39. See also Madeleine Stern, The English Press in Paris, p.338.

URL is to the 1814 Dublin reprint.