Abstract
Tacitism, the practice of translating and commenting on Tacitus, reached fad-like heights of popularity during the first half of the seventeenth century in France as prominent thinkers and ministers close to the throne found it useful to translate Tacitus from Latin into French.1 By the end of the century the once rich field of French translators of the Roman historian had thinned, and only Amelot de La Houssaye, 'the last of the great Tacitists',2 kept the flame alive. France had evolved between the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIV, and so had the place of Tacitus in French society. Often overlooked by historians in their bibliographies of French versions of Tacitus, Amelot de La Houssaye's work marks the transition from integral translations of Tacitus by royal ministers, dedicated to the monarch, to critical, segmented translations, or in some cases centos, conceived as handbooks for courtiers. This change in the formal presentation of the translated text is the basis of an ambiguity in the definition of what constitutes a 'translation' of Tacitus. By ignoring Amelot's critical translated editions, historians have come to the conclusion that Tacitus' popularity waned at the end of the seventeenth century in France.3 But an examination of Amelot's editions, his authorial intentions expressed in their dedications and prefaces,4 and his stylistic and typographical representation of the Latin source text shows that his contribution to French translation of Tacitus is a considerable one, and should be seen as the culmination of a tradition which was far from defunct.
Published Version
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