The Forgotten Encyclopedia

Linn Holmberg Linn Holmberg In mid-eighteenth-century Paris, two young monks from the Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur – also known as the Maurists – started compiling a universal dictionary of arts, crafts, and sciences. The work was initiated simultaneously with what would become one of the most famous literary enterprises in Western intellectual history: the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert. While the dictionary of the philosophes eventually turned into Encyclopedia Forgotten The a controversial but successful best-seller, considered as the most important medium of Enlightenment thought, the Benedictines never finished or published their work. After almost a decade, the manuscripts were put aside in the monastery library, and were soon forgotten. This dissertation explores the history and contents of the Maurists’ enterprise. The project is situated within its monastic environment of production, the history of the encyclopedic dictionary, and the Enlightenment culture. The study shows that the Maurists early found themselves in a rival situation with the embryonic Encyclopédie, and that the two projects had several common denominators that distinguished them from the predecessors within the genre. At the same time, the Maurists were making a dictionary unique in the eighteenth century. The study provides new perspectives on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, the intellectual activities of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, as well as the editor in charge of the Maurist dictionary: Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety, otherwise known for his alchemical writings. Linn Holmberg is a historian of science and ideas at Umeå University. This is her doctoral dissertation. The Forgotten Encyclopedia The Maurists’ Dictionary of Arts, Crafts, and Sciences, the Unrealized Rival of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert Linn Holmberg Umeå University 2014 University Umeå Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies ISBN: 978-91-7601-030-3 Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Umeå University 2014 www.idesam.umu.se Historiska studier: skrifter från Umeå universitet 7 The Forgotten Encyclopedia The Maurists’ Dictionary of Arts, Crafts, and Sciences, the Unrealized Rival of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert Linn Holmberg Doctoral Dissertation Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Umeå University Umeå 2014 Historiska studier: skrifter från Umeå universitet 7 This work is protected by the Swedish Copyright Legislation (Act 1960:729) ISBN: 978-91-7601-030-3 Front page: Paris 1734–1736, Plan de Turgot (Wikimedia Commons) Layout: Ida Holmgren, Print & Media Electronic version available at http://umu.diva-portal.org/ Printed by Print & Media, Umeå University Umeå, Sweden 2014 ABSTRACT In mid-eighteenth century Paris, two Benedictine monks from the Congregation of Saint-Maur – also known as the Maurists – started compiling a universal dictionary of arts, crafts, and sciences. The project was initiated simultaneously with what would become one of the most famous literary enterprises in Western intellectual history: the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert. The latter started as an augmented translation of Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, but it was constructed with another French dictionary as its ideological counterpart: the Jesuits’ Dictionnaire de Trévoux. While the Encyclopédie eventually turned into a controversial but successful best-seller, considered as the most important medium of Enlightenment thought, the Benedictines never finished or published their work. After a decade, the manuscripts were put aside in the monastery library, and were soon forgotten. For about two hundred and sixty years, the Maurists’ dictionary material has largely escaped the attention of researchers, and its history of production has been unknown. This dissertation examines the history and characteristics of the Maurists’ enterprise. The manuscripts are compared to the Encyclopédie and the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, and the project situated within its monastic environment of production, the history of the encyclopedic dictionary, and the Enlightenment culture. The study has an interdisciplinary character and combines perspectives of History of Science and Ideas, History of Monasticism, History of Encyclopedism, and History of the Book. The research procedure is distinguished by a microhistorical approach, where the studied materials are analyzed in a detailed manner and the research process included in the narrative. The dissertation shows that the Maurists early found themselves in a rival situation with the embryonic Encyclopédie, and that the two projects had several common denominators that distinguished them from the predecessors within the genre. At the same time, the Maurists were making a dictionary unique in the eighteenth century, which assumed a third position in relation to the works of the encyclopédistes and the Jesuits. The study provides new perspectives on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, the intellectual activities of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, as well as the editor in charge of the Maurist dictionary: Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety, otherwise known for his alchemical writings. Keywords: The Congregation of Saint-Maur, the Maurists, Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety, the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, History of Science and Ideas, History of Encyclopedism, History of Monasticism, History of the Book, the French Enlightenment, Classification and Organization of Knowledge, Eighteenth-Century Sciences and Arts, Microhistory. i ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this dissertation has been one of the greatest, most challenging and fantastic experiences of my life. When I became a PhD student at Umeå University in September 2009, I had no idea that I would spend a whole year in Paris, or that I would get used to reading French manuscripts under chandeliers, next to golden murals. I could not imagine that I each Sunday would be drinking coffee at the Café Procope – the old hangout of the philosophes – or that I would attend classic concerts at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the remains of the once great abbey of the Maurists. These years truly have been an amazing journey – personally as well as professionally. And I have not done it alone. I am deeply grateful to my three supervisors: Mohammad Fazlhashemi, who always has believed in me and my project, and given me free reins to follow my ideas and instinct, whatever they have been; Caroline Boucher, who has been the most important, indefatigable and meticulous reader and commentator on contents as well as the French language. Words do not suffice to express my gratitude for everything that you have done, or the respect I hold for your learning and eye for details; Daniel-Odon Hurel, who not only introduced me to the academic world in France and welcomed me to LEM (CNRS) and CERCOR, but who also supplied me with an abundance of useful material on the Maurists, shared his expertise, patiently answered all my questions, and put me in contact with other researchers. I could not have written this dissertation without the three of you. For their generous grants that allowed me to spend extra time in Paris, I thank STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education), Svensk-franska Stiftelsen (the Swedish-French Foundation), and Stiftelsen J C Kempes Minnes Stipendiefond (The Kempe Foundations). Without these additional stays, my dissertation would not be half of what it is today. During these years, I have met many great scholars who have made an impact on my work. Above all, I wish to thank the Encyclopédie-specialists Marie Leca- Tsiomis and Martine Groult for their advice and encouragement and for inviting me to present and discuss my research at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) and the Université Paris-Sorbonne. Moreover, I thank Greta Kaucher for her invaluable remarks on my accounts on the French book trade and for letting me read extracts from her forthcoming book; Dena Goodman for commenting on my paper, asking all the right questions, and encouraging me to be bolder; Tatsuo Hemmi for kind support and literature; Madeleine Pinault-Sorensen for her input on the Encyclopédie plates; Dom Lucien-Jean Bord for bringing me unpublished material from the abbey of Ligugé; David Eick for sharing his unpublished thesis with me; Colin Jones for literature advice and images; and Jeff Loveland and Richard Yeo for the correspondence that early pointed me in the right direction. I also wish to thank iii the personnel of the Manuscripts Department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and notably the conservators Marie-Françoise Damongeot and Marie-Pierre Laffitte for examining the Maurists’ manuscripts with me. I am especially grateful to Damongeot who read and commented on my technical studies of the material. I also thank Véronique Églin and Daher Hani at LIRIS for their efforts to make a computer-based handwriting analysis of the manuscripts; Valentin Wendebourg for help with German translations; My Hellsing for last-minute verification of sources in Paris, Anders Berglund for assistance with the jurisdiction regarding images; and Pelle Isaksson and Lisa Eriksson for letting me rent their wonderful apartment in Paris (the bathtub was truly a blessing after the long days at the Manuscripts Department). Most of all, I thank my colleagues at Umeå University and all who have read and commented

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