An essay on privileges, and particularly on hereditary nobility: Wiritten (sic) by the Abbé Sieyès, a member of the national assembly, and translated into English, with notes, by a foreign nobleman, now in England
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Contributions
- A foreign nobleman, now in England (Alvise Zenobio)
- translator
- James Ridgway
- publisher
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- An essay on privileges, and particularly on hereditary nobility: Wiritten (sic) by the Abbé Sieyès, a member of the national assembly, and translated into English, with notes, by a foreign nobleman, now in England paratext
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Notes
Count Zenobio ("a foreign nobleman, now in England") would appear to be the most likely candidate as the translator of Sieyes' text. See Alessandra Manzi, 'Cosmpolotismo e piccolo patria: la scrittura politica di Alvise Zenobio, nobile Veneziano (1757–1817)', in Franco Angeli, ed., 'Il Risorgimento' (2016).
According to Michael Sonenscher, this translation was based on the second, expanded 1789 edition of the original November 1788 pamphlet. While it contains some inaccuracies, Sonenscher notes the vividness of many of the terms used by the translator as well as the addition of some lines and several pages of footnotes inserted in the main text attacking Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790)! He accuses Burke, in particular, of ignoring, "the several hundred thousands of Irish peasants who drag out a wretched existence in huts of mouldering clay, who are not so well treated as the animals kept for the sport of their tyrannical lords". But this is hardly surprising, he went on sarcastically, given that unlike the French Queen (who Burke notoriously eulogized), "these are only creatures of an inferior kind, they are of the vulgar, and not entitled to the attentions of an exalted mind, and a benevolent heart, according to the fashionable system of benevolence". (p.16) The main inaccuracy is the use of "nobility" for "privilegiés" instead of "the privileged orders" (thus excluding the clergy). For more background as well as the (corrected) translation without footnotes, see Michael Sonenscher, ed., 'Sieyes: Political Writings' (2003, Hackett), pp68-91.
However, there are indications that suggest it might also be the work of someone else, including the fact that Zenobio never published the riposte to Burke that the translator had promised in his Preface and continued to keep his noble title in his future publications, despite having praised "particularly the abolition of titles and nobility". For example, see 'The French Constitution impartially considered in its Principles & Effects… by Count Zenobio of Venice, now in London… with some Observations on the present Conduct of the English Patriots' (1792, James Ridgway).