Nicolas Beauzée

Nicolas Beauzée ( born May 9, 1717 Verdun, † January 24, 1789 in Paris) was a French linguist, author of the 1767 published Grammaire générale and one of the major contributor to the Encyclopédie to the theme grammar. In 1772 he was appointed as the successor of Charles Pinot Duclos to the Académie française.

Life and work

Early years and employment at the Royal Military Academy

Beauzée was born on May 9, 1717 Verdun. The church registers of the parish of Saint -Sauveur has his father out as laborers ( manouvrier ). A scholarship enabled him in the years 1731 to 1739 the visit of the Jesuit College of Verdun.

In the 1740s Beauzée lived for some time in Paris, before returning in 1747 to Verdun. There he lived in poverty until he again went to mediation of the influential writer Fontenelle to Paris and in 1753 a position as a teacher of grammar at two years previously established for the training of sons of impoverished nobles Royal Military Academy Ecole royale militaire took. Although the employment Beauzée, his wife and four children saved from poverty, he was repeatedly high and again demoted to his rank, so that his financial situation remained uncertain.

Beauzée as contributors to the Encyclopédie

As 1765 César Chesneau Du Marsais, the former principal agent of the subject area grammar for the Encyclopédie, died, sat Beauzée whose work with his colleagues at the Ecole royale militaire Jacques- Philippe -Augustin Douchet continued. Kafker rated Beauzées participation in a free-thinking book like the Encyclopédie as "surprising" because Beauzées abrégée in its first and so far only publication entitled exposure of preuves historiques de la religion chrétienne, pour lui servir d' apologie contre les Sophismes de l ' irreligion (about: Short presentation of historical evidence for the Christian religion, as a defense against the fallacies of irreligion ) represented traditional viewpoints.

For the 1757 published the seventh volume of the Encyclopédie Douchet and Beauzée enrolled a total of thirteen posts, of which at least three - Gallicisme, genre and Grammaire - are attributable more Beauzée (Articles started by Beauzée together with Douchet are provided with the author abbreviation " ERM "; contributions where Beauzée acted as sole author, are marked with " BERM "). Then Douchet terminated its employees, including Beauzée listed relieved:

" Mes idées, contraintes alors par la concurrence de celles de mon collègue & par les égards que notre m'imposoit association, n'ont ni ni pu se dû Développer avec toute l' aisance que donne une liberté entière. "

" My thoughts, forced by competition from those of my colleagues and the consideration to which I undertook our connection, could not and were not allowed to develop with the full skill itself that makes an undivided freedom possible."

After leaving Douchets Beauzée authored more than 125 specifically marked and 20 anonymous articles for Volumes 8-17 of the Encyclopédie.

Although Diderot - Kafker as rightly pointed out - may have been irritated by articles like Langue and Nom where Beauzée defended the thesis of the divine nature of the language, he still valued his work positively. He wrote, Beauzée is without a doubt the " most versatile, most honorable and the most appreciated man " of the Ecole royale militaire and his contributions to Encylopédie stood those of his predecessor Marsais you in every way.

The Grammaire générale

In 1767 Beauzées major work, the two-volume Grammaire générale ou exposition raisonnée of éléments nécessaires appeared du langage, pour servir à l' étude de fondement de toutes les langues, which was based in part on Beauzées contributions to the Encyclopédie. These were a universal grammar in the spirit of Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot. With around 10,000 copies sold Beauzées Grammaire générale reached high penetration levels, modern interpreters of the work but is controversial. While Gunvor Sahlin in the Grammaire générale "vague metaphysical speculation " accounts, Barrie E. Bartlett draws a much more positive conclusion:

" Beauzée 's intellectual accomplishments Showed a high degree of sophistication and gave expression to insights Which have re-emerged in a clearer form as significant and lasting Developments only within the present century. "

" Beauzées academic performance showed a high degree of perfection and have fostered insights to light, as they appeared in a clearer form as a significant and lasting developments only in this century again. "

The majority of Beauzées contemporaries was impressed by the work. The Habsburg monarch Maria Theresa gave to a gold medal to the author for sending a copy and also Beauzées position at the Ecole royale militaire was safer. In 1768 he was inducted into the Accademia della Crusca. Nevertheless, judged Diderot, the Grammaire générale lacked clarity in the presentation and taste in the choice of examples.

Working as an editor and translator

Following publication of the Grammaire générale Beauzée operated in many ways as an editor and translator. In 1769 he published Abbé Gabriel Girard Synonymous françois, 1787 Thomas à Kempis ' Imitation of Christ, and Isaac Newton's Optics in the translation of Jean -Paul Marat. Beauzée even translated the Historiae Sallust, Historiae Alexandri Magni of the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus and à Kempis ' Four Books of following Christ. For the three-volume Grammaire et littérature the French writer Jean -François Marmontel, he contributed revised article from the Encyclopédie.

Admission to the Académie française and last years

After several unsuccessful attempts Beauzée was appointed to succeed his friend Charles Pinot Duclos to the Académie française in 1772. Only the fact that Louis XV. had already rejected two other candidates, clouded his success. Influential circles of the French court tried the philosophes was to stay out of the Académie and Beauzée - despite his authorship of the Encyclopédie - as a safe candidate. In his inaugural speech, his attitude to Catholicism and the monarchy reflects: Language Beauzée designated as "natural basis of religion" (base naturelle de la religion) and Louis XV. was praised by him as "the best of kings" ( meilleur des Rois ).

The statements on Beauzées setting the French Revolution are contradictory. During the Abbé Molleret puts him on a par with the Marquis de Condorcet and Nicolas Chamfort and other Academy members who were " with the full force of the word revolutionaries " ( étaient révolutionnaires dans toute la force de ce mot), this does not coincide with the statements Chamfort, Rivarol and other of his contemporaries, who characterize it as primarily concerned with his work scholars. In addition Beauzée died in January 1789, when the French Revolution only began.

Works (selection)

• Exposure abrégée of preuves historiques de la religion chrétienne, pour lui servir d' apologie contre les Sophismes de l' irreligion ( 1747 )
• Grammaire générale ou exposition raisonnée of éléments nécessaires du langage, pour servir de fondement à l' étude de toutes les langues (1767, available online via Gallica, the digitization project of the French National Library, modern print edition reprint of Paris in 1767, with an introduction by Barrie E. Bartlett, Stuttgart [ua ] 1974 see also: Barrie E. Bartlett, Beauzée 's Grammaire générale Theory and methodology, The Hague, 1975, ISBN 90-279-3433-9 ).

• Synonymous françois, leurs le choix différentes significations et qu'il faut faire pour en parler avec l' abbé justesse par M. Girard ... (1769 )
• Optique de Newton, nouvelle traduction faite par M *** [ Marat ] sur la dernière édition originale ... dediee au roi par M. Beauzée, éditeur de cet ouvrage ... (1787, available online via Gallica )