Philosophies cartésiennes à l'usage des étrangers: les traductions latines du Traité de physique de Rohault et de la Recherche de la vérité de Malebranche

Abstract

Cartesianisms for foreigners: the Latin translations of Rohault’s Traite de Physique and Malebranche’s Recherche de la verite. Few philosophical texts of the early modern period were translated into Latin. However, in the 17th century, we find multiple Latin translations of contemporary philosophical works, such as the Traite de physique by Jacques Rohault and De la Recherche de la verite by Nicolas Malebranche. The Latin translations of these texts inspired by Descartes’s philosophy were both published at the end of the century, respectively in 1674 and 1685, by two Genevan printers. The Treatise of Rohault was then retranslated into Latin twice, first by Antoine Le Grand (1682) and then by Samuel Clarke (1697), whereas the translation of the Recherche by Jacques Lenfant inspired a new (anonymous) adaptation in the middle of the 18th century (1753). The article examines the first Latin translations of Rohault’s and Malebranche’s works and compares them with the subsequent versions in order to grasp the characteristics of Latin translation of philosophical texts, namely works of Cartesian inspiration. The analysis of these translations allows to define a kind of paradigm for the translation of Cartesian texts, suggested (not only implicitly but also explicitly) by the translators themselves.