PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/147542 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-09 and may be subject to change. ψ UTA JANSSENS MATTHIEU MATY AND THE JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE 1750-1755 HOLLAND UNIVERSITY PRESS AMSTERDAM MATTHIEU MATY AND THE JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE Promotor: Professor T. A. Birrell "Le Docteur Maty" engraved by Louis Carrogls de Carmontelle Musée Condé, Chantilly MATTHIEU MATY AND THE JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE 1750-1755 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor in de letteren aan de Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof. mr. F. J. F. M. Duynstee volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 14 maart 1975 des namiddags te 4 uur door UTA EVA MARIA JANSSENS-KNORSCH geboren te Bielefeld HOLLAND UNIVERSITY PRESS AMSTERDAM i ISBN 90 302 1103 2 No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers. © 1975 by Holland University Press bv, Amsterdam Printed in the Netherlands for Gerry ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following people have helped me in a variety of ways with my research and with the preparation of the manuscript: the Reverend Lekkerkerker of Montfoort unravelled some of Maty's family back­ ground; Irene Scouloudi and C. F. A. Marmoy of the Huguenot Society of London stimulated my work with their ready interest in the subject; Miss Oldfield of the Director's Office of the British Museum extended to me the special privilege of consulting the minutes of the board meetings; Alan Schwartz and Antoine Keys er kindly provided specialized scientific and medical information; Hans Bots of the Institute for Intellectual Relations in the Seventeenth Century at Nijmegen University cast a trained eye on the manuscript; A.J. Eijckelhof and N. Tesser of Nijmegen University Library provided friendly assistance with inter- library loan problems; Theo Bongaerts and Ger Peerbooms assisted with reading the proofs; and Mies Jacobs-Wtllems typed the manuscript with her usual expertise and patience. I owe a debt of gratitude also to the following libraries and institutions and to their staff members who have been helpful beyond the bounds of duty: the Archives Wallonnes at The Hague (formerly at Leyden); the Bibliothèque de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français, Paris; the Bibliothèque Universitaire et Publique, Geneva; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library, London; the Deutsche Staats­ bibliothek, Berlin, DDR; Nottingham University Library; and the University Library of Utrecht. I am particularly grateful to Professor Patrick E. Lee of the University of Georgia, Athens (U.S.A.), who generously exchanged Information about Matthieu Maty with me. My husband followed my work in all its stages and with unfailing good humour continued to listen to me on matters concerning Maty. He gave me the benefit of his knowledge, taste and critical insight. To him this book is dedicated. VII CONTE NTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: MATTHIEU MATY (1718-1776) i Family background 7 li Maty in Holland 9 lii Maty's early London activities 12 iv Editor of the JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE and F. R. S. 17 ν Librarian of the British Museum, Member of several European Academies and Secretary of the Royal Society of London 20 vi Maty and Edward Gibbon; his French acquaintances 24 vii Maty's medical career 28 vili Maty and Thomas Birch 30 be Maty, David Hume and J. J.Rousseau; the Calas affair; the Patagontan Giants 32 χ Maty's interest in natural history 34 xl Maty's MEMOIRS OF CHESTERFIELD 36 xil Death and reputation 40 PART Π: THE "JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE" (1750-1755) I Literary journalism and criticism In the 18th century 43 11 Editorial policy 48 ill The booksellers 54 Iv Maty and Scheurleer 56 ν Circulation and reputation 58 vl Physical appearance 60 vll Would-be successors 61 vili Contents 65 lx Contributors 71 χ Maty and English literature 78 a) Poetry 79 b) Drama 94 c) Prose 98 IX CONCLUSION 125 APPENDICES 127 i Analytical Index 127 Introductory 127 Analytical Index of articles and books reviewed 139 ii List of Contributors 169 NOTES 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 INDEX 207 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Matthieu Maty, engraved by Francesco Bartolozzl, cover Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum and facing p. 6 (by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum) "Le Docteur Maty", engraved by Louis Carrogls de frontispiece Carmontelle, Musée Condé, Chantilly (droit de reproduction Giraudon) Matthieu Maty, painted by Barthélémy Dupan, facing p. 42 Board Room, British Museum (by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum) Le Journal Britannique facing p. 126 Frontispiece and title-page X MATTHIEU MATY AND THE JOURNAL BRITANNIQUE INTRODUCTION The importance of detailed studies of literary periodicals as inter­ médiaires in the history of ideas has by now become generally recognized. Not only are at this moment the complete sets of well- known as well as of rare and obscure periodicals of the past in the process of being reprinted, but there have already appeared, in recent years, an increasing number of methodical analyses of the contents and the impact of individual magazines or groups of related magazines. These reprints and studies indicate a growing awareness of the relevance of the files of defunct periodicals for the study of the literature and culture of the past. The emergence of significant periodical publication can be traced to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. By that time an increasing need was felt to collect, coordinate, and communicate the knowledge and learning of the day, not only on a national but also on an international scale. It was the age of the foundation of the great academies and societies for the advancement of learning, the first great stock-taking of l'Europe savante; in 1652 the Leopold Academy of Halle was founded, In 1662 the Royal Society of London, in 1666 the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, in 1700 the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, in 1713 the Royal Academy of Madrid, in 1725 the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Petersburg, In 1739 the Royal Academy of Sweden, and in 1752 the Academy of Sciences of Haarlem. Instead of locking himself up in his cabinet with ponderous latin tomes the scholar of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century could cultivate his mind faster and better by mutual converse and the exchange of ideas with men of equal temper and interest. Out of this urge and the newly established possibility of consolidating the knowledge of the age sprang the Journal des Savans, the Philosophical Transactions, the Acta E rudi to rum Llpstensis and similar periodical publications - more or less official organs of communication of their respective countries' Intellectual activities, but with an interest also in what was going on in the rest of the civilized world. A sort of synthesis of these various national activities was first attempted by Pierre Bayle' s Nouvelles de la République des Lettres (1684-1687), Issued in Holland, a country that by lts natural as well as political and economic situation was pre­ destined to become the crossroads of eighteenth-century European thought. Bayle' s Nouvelles was not only the first International but also the first general, or "literary" periodical, In the eighteenth-century 1 sense of the word. It proposed to treat of all kinds of subjects, not only of religion, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, physics, astronomy, and the like, but also of belles-lettres, and it addressed itself not only to a strictly erudite public as the earlier publications had done, but also to a "public lettre au sens le plus étendu du mot, hommes et femmes, la Cour, la Ville et la province de tous les pays de l'Europe" (l)*.The fact that Bayle could confidently venture upon such an enterprise was due to the unique position in which he found himself at the time, living in exile in Holland, where every­ thing that was in any way noteworthy was easily accessible and where the most advanced books were either originally printed or almost immediately pirated after their first appearance (2). Further­ more, the absence of any direct censorship, which was then debil­ itating the press in France, permitted Bayle to speak out freely on whatever subject he chose. The enormous success of the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres soon stimulated similar ventures, and next in line appeared Jean LeClerc's Bibliothèque Universelle et Historique (1686-1693) soon to be followed by Henri Basnage's Histoire des Ouvrages des Savana (1687-1709), by the Bibliothèque Choisie (1703-1713) also by LeClerc, and by the Bibliothèque Angloise (1717-1728) by Michel de la Roche and Armand de la Chapelle. What all these periodicals have In common is not only similarity in subject-matter, an identical reading-public, and the same country as place of publication, but also the striking fact that they are written in French and edited by French Huguenot refugees. The Huguenot refugees of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century might rightfully be called the first Weltbürger. Leaving France in great numbers after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), they quickly took new roots wherever they went, acclimatized them­ selves, establishing social, economic and intellectual relations with their new fellow-countrymen and keeping up those they had formed previously in France or on their wanderings in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Holland and England. Foremost among them, Pierre Bayle exhibits that characteristic cosmopolitanism which made them ideal middlemen of European thought and culture (3).