Misplaced Pages

#554445

30-496: The prize was founded in 1822 in memory of count Volney and was originally a gold medal worth 1,200 francs. This award -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This philology -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Constantin-Fran%C3%A7ois Chasseb%C5%93uf Constantin-François Chassebœuf de La Giraudais ( French: [kɔ̃stɑ̃tɛ̃ fʁɑ̃sua ʃasəbœf də la ʒiʁodɛ] ), comte de Volney (1757–1820),

60-522: A fictionalized world convention wherein each religion defends its version of "the truth" according to its particular holy book. Since no religion is able to scientifically "prove" its most basic assertions, Volney concludes the book with a call for an absolute separation of church and state : From this we conclude, that, to live in harmony and peace...we must trace a line of distinction between those (assertions) that are capable of verification, and those that are not; (we must) separate by an inviolable barrier

90-578: A hotel located on the Rue de Vaugirard , remarkable above all for the pleasantness of a very extensive garden. He remained gruff and sullen to the rest of the world . Those are some of the places and things in the United States of America and France , which were named after him. Acad%C3%A9mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres ( French pronunciation: [akademi dez‿ɛ̃skʁipsjɔ̃ e bɛl lɛtʁ] )

120-711: A moderate Liberal , was impressed into service by the First French Empire , and Napoleon made him a count and put him into the senate . After the Bourbon Restoration he was made a Peer of France by Louis XVIII in 1814, upon recognition of his hostility towards the Empire. Chassebœuf became a member of the Académie française in 1795. In his later years he helped to found oriental studies in France, learning Sanskrit from

150-487: A new English translation of the work. Volney visited Monticello for two weeks during June 1796. The two men also met on several occasions at the American Philosophical Society , of which Volney had been made a member in 1797. Jefferson was President of APS at the time and sponsored Volney's induction into the organization. These meetings provided the two men with ample opportunity to conceive and discuss

180-403: Is Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, in order to learn Arabic . In 1785 he returned to France, where he spent the next two years compiling his notes and writing his Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie (1787) and Considérations sur la guerre des Turcs et de la Russie (1788). He was heavily influenced by the ideas of Helvetius and Holbach but had little regard for Rousseau. During 1788 he was scathing on

210-643: Is a French learned society devoted to history , founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epigraphy ) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres ). The Académie originated in 1663 as a council of four humanists , "scholars who were the most versed in the knowledge of history and antiquity": Jean Chapelain , François Charpentier , Jacques Cassagne , Amable de Bourzeys , and Charles Perrault . In another source, Perrault

240-488: Is not mentioned, and other original members are named as François Charpentier and a M. Douvrier. The organizer was King Louis XIV 's finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert . Its first name was the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Médailles , and its mission was to compose or obtain Latin inscriptions to be written on public monuments and medals issued to celebrate the events of Louis' reign. However, under Colbert's management,

270-629: The Asiatic Society and the Celtic Academy , he wrote on ancient history and created a “ universal alphabet ”. Volney was born at Craon , Anjou (today in Mayenne ), of a noble family. His great-grandfather, son of a royal bailiff, was himself a notary and had a surgeon brother. His grandfather, François Chasseboeuf, lawyer, public prosecutor of the inhabitants acted as mayor; he took the title in 1741 . He lost his mother, Jeanne Gigault, daughter of

300-728: The Coup of 18 Brumaire and became a Senator . He was a close advisor to Bonaparte at the start of the Consulate , until the Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1801. Napoleon granted him the title of Imperial Count in 1808. When the House of Bourbon reclaimed its throne in 1814, Louis XVIII made him a Peer of France . A member of the Académie Française , the American Philosophical Society ,

330-581: The National Constituent Assembly . His best-known book, The Ruins (1791), was among the first to defend the Christ myth theory . He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror and left for the United States of America in 1795. A friend of Thomas Jefferson , he was suspected of espionage by President John Adams , who had him expelled from the country in 1798. On his return to France, he contributed to

SECTION 10

#1732844215555

360-807: The University of Paris , and his Mémoire sur la Chronologie d'Hérodote (on Herodotus ) rose to the attention of the Académie des Inscriptions and of the group around Claude Adrien Helvétius . Soon after, he befriended Pierre Jean George Cabanis , the Marquis de Condorcet , the Baron d'Holbach , and Benjamin Franklin . He embarked on a journey to the East in late 1782 and reached Egypt, where he spent nearly seven months. He then lived for nearly two years in Greater Syria, in what today

390-511: The translation project . Jefferson, then serving as Vice President under John Adams , appreciated the book's central theme – that empires rise if government allows enlightened self-interest to flourish. This theme, Jefferson believed, represented an excellent summary of the Enlightenment-based principles upon which the U.S. was founded. However, Jefferson insisted that his translation be published only for certain readers, due to

420-578: The Académie performed many additional roles, such as determining the art that would decorate the Palace of Versailles . In 1683 Minister Louvois increased the membership to eight. In 1701 its membership was expanded to 40 and reorganized under the leadership of Chancellor Pontchartrain . It met twice a week at the Louvre , its members began to receive significant pensions, and was made an official state institution on

450-621: The British constitutional set up calling on the French to ignore existing models. He was a member both of the Estates-General and of the National Constituent Assembly after the outbreak of the French Revolution . In 1791 his essay on the philosophy of history appeared, Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires . It conveys a vision predicting the union of all religions through

480-644: The British linguist Alexander Hamilton , whom he had helped to protect during the Napoleonic era. He died in Paris and was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery . English translations of Volney's Ruins began appearing within a year or so of its first French edition but sometime during Volney's stay in the United States, he and Thomas Jefferson entered into a secret arrangement whereby Jefferson agreed to make

510-487: The Sieur de la Giraudaie ( Candé ) at the age of two and was brought up far from his father, Jacques-René Chasseboeuf, seneschal of the priory of Saint-Clément de Craon – who died as a judge - district president, on April 25, 1796 at 68 years old, with whom he never got along. His father remarried to Marie-Renée Humfray, who took care of the orphan. Initially interested in law and medicine, he went on to study classical languages at

540-454: The Sphinx , he attributed its features and head to be characterized as being Negro . He further commented that "...to think that this race of black men, today our slave and the object of our contempt, is the very one to whom we owe our arts, our sciences and even the use of speech. Finally, to imagine that it is in the midst of peoples who call themselves the most friends of freedom and humanity that

570-455: The Voyage to Egypt and Syria had earned its author the suffrage of Empress Catherine II of Russia , who sent him a gold medal as a token of her satisfaction; it was in 1787. Remaining single until 1810, he later married a cousin, Mademoiselle Gigault, with whom he would live "in polite agreement." Since his marriage, he gave up his house on Rue de la Catherine de La Rochefoucauld . He then acquired

600-461: The book's controversial religious content. Jefferson was preparing to make a bid for the Presidency of the United States in 1800; he was worried his Federalist opponents would attack him as an atheist, if it were known he translated Volney's supposedly heretical book. According to the evidence discovered by the French researcher Gilbert Chinard (1881-1972), Jefferson translated the invocation plus

630-410: The first 20 chapters of the 1802 Paris edition of Volney's Ruins . These first 20 chapters represent a review of human history from the point of view of a post-Enlightenment philosopher. Presumably, Jefferson then became too occupied with the 1800 Presidential campaign and did not have time to finish the last four chapters of the book. In these chapters Volney describes "General Assembly of Nations,"

SECTION 20

#1732844215555

660-552: The first modern writers to advocate the Christ myth theory , the view that Jesus had no historical existence. Volney and Dupuis argued that Christianity was an amalgamation of various ancient mythologies and that Jesus was a mythical character. However, in his version of the Christ Myth theory, Volney allowed for an obscure historical figure whose life was integrated into a solar mythology. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were supporters of this theory. In describing

690-496: The king's decree. In January 1716 it was permanently renamed to the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres with the broader goal of elevating the prestige of the French monarchy using physical symbols uncovered or recovered through the methods of classical erudition. The Académie produced a catalogue of medals created in honor of Louis XIV, Médailles sur les événements du règne de Louis le Grand, avec des explications historiques , first published in 1702. A second edition

720-643: The king's image, rather than as an accurate historical record. In the words of the Académie's charter, it is: primarily concerned with the study of the monuments, the documents, the languages, and the cultures of the civilizations of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the classical period, as well as those of non-European civilizations. Today the academy is composed of fifty-five French members, forty associate foreign members, fifty French corresponding members, and fifty foreign corresponding members. The seats are distributed evenly among "orientalists" (scholars of Asia and

750-407: The most barbaric of slaveries has been sanctioned and questioned whether black men have an intelligence of species of white men." However, once viewing the mummified remains and more engraved heads, Constantin de Volney would backtrack considerably on his initial position, abandoning his ideas. More exposure, experience and study had allowed him to correct many previous errors in thought. His story,

780-511: The recognition of the common truths underlying them all. Volney tried to put his politico-economic theories into practice in Corsica , where in 1792 he bought an estate and made an attempt to cultivate colonial produce . He was imprisoned during the Jacobin Club triumph, but escaped the guillotine . He spent some time as a professor of history at the newly founded École Normale . Volney

810-410: The world of fantastical beings from the world of realities... Since Jefferson did not have time to complete the translation project , the last four chapters were translated by Joel Barlow , an American land speculator and poet living in Paris. Barlow's name then became associated with the entire translation, further obscuring Jefferson's role in the project. Volney and Charles-François Dupuis were

840-495: Was a deist . In 1795 he undertook a journey to the United States, where he was accused (1797) by John Adams ' administration of being a French spy sent to prepare for the reoccupation of Louisiana by France and then to the West Indies. Consequently, he returned to France. The results of his travels took form in his Tableau du climat et du sol des États-Unis (1803). He was not a partisan of Napoleon Bonaparte , but, being

870-591: Was a French philosopher , historian , orientalist and politician . In his youth, he attended Madame Helvétius 's salon in Paris , where he met Benjamin Franklin during the American War of Independence . He became famous in 1787 with a book about his journey to Ottoman Egypt and Syria . At the beginning of the French Revolution , Volney represented commoners of Anjou in the Estates General and took part in

900-512: Was published in 1723, eight years after Louis' death. Each page of the catalogue featured engraved images of the obverse and reverse of a single medal, followed by a lengthy description of the event upon which it was based. The second edition added some medals for events prior to 1700 which were not included in the first volume, and in some cases the images of medals in the earlier edition were altered, resulting in an improved version. The catalogues may therefore be seen as an artistic effort to enhance

#554445