Philosophical Dissertations on the Greeks
Authors of source text
Contributions
- Captain J. Thomson
- translator
- Robert Faulder
- publisher
Related resources
- is translation of
- Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs has translation
- has paratext
- Philosophical Dissertations on the Greeks paratext
Held by
Notes
The translator's preface explains his refusal to add any commentary, "through deference to an Enlightenment public" and went on to distance himself from the work by explaining that it was the product of a "foreigner" whose opinions relate above all to the Continent. Thomson also translated 'Philosophical Dissertations on the Egyptians & Chinese' (1795, Thomas Chapman), which was intended to show how different the Egyptian and Chinese civilizations were. It was partly directed against Voltaire's ideas on the subject, including his great admiration for the Chinese.
For the identification of the translator, see G.E. Bentley, Jr., 'Copyright Documents in the George Robinson Archive: William Godwin and others 1713-1820' (1982, Studies in Bibliography, vol.35). The successful and sociable publisher Robinson was a major dealer in copyrights which he brought from other booksellers and sold on in turn. These documents reveal that Robinson hired the bilingual London-based translator and former publisher, Jean-Thomas Hérissant des Carrières, to check the proofs of Thomson's translation.