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{{Short description|French philosopher and politician}}
⚫ ] (1825).]]
{{Infobox person
⚫ ] (division 41), Paris]]
| name = Volney
| image = File:Volney1795.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Volney by ] (], ], 1795)
| birth_date = 3 February 1757
| birth_place = ], ], ]
| death_date = {{death date and age |1820|4|25 |1757|2|3 |df=yes}}
| death_place = ], ]
| occupation =
}}


'''Constantin-François Chassebœuf de La Giraudais''' ({{IPA|fr|kɔ̃stɑ̃tɛ̃ fʁɑ̃sua ʃasəbœf də la ʒiʁodɛ|lang}}), ] de '''Volney''' (1757–1820), was a French ], ], ] and ].
'''Constantin François de Chassebœuf''', ] '''de Volney''' (3 February 1757 – 25 April 1820) was a French philosopher, abolitionist, historian, ], and politician. He was at first surnamed ''Boisgirais'' after his father's estate, but afterwards assumed the name of ''Volney'' (which he had created as a ] of '']'' and '']'').

In his youth, he attended ]'s ] in ], where he met ] during the ]. He became famous in 1787 with a book about his journey to ] and ]. At the beginning of the ], Volney represented ] of ] in the ] and took part in the ]. His best-known book, ''The Ruins'' (1791), was among the first to defend the ].

He was imprisoned during the ] and left for the ] in 1795. A friend of ], he was suspected of espionage by President ], who had him expelled from the country in 1798. On his return to France, he contributed to the ] and became a ]. He was a close advisor to ] at the start of the ], until the ] in 1801. Napoleon granted him the title of ] in 1808. When the ] reclaimed its throne in 1814, ] made him a ].

A member of the ], the ], the ] and the ], he wrote on ancient ] and created a “]”.


==Life== ==Life==


===Revolution=== ===Early life and the French Revolution===
]
He was born at ], ] (today in ]) of a noble family. Initially interested in Law and Medicine, he went on to study ]s, and his ''Mémoire sur la Chronologie d'Hérodote'' (on ]) rose to the attention of the ] and of the group around ].Soon after, Volney befriended ], the ], the ], and ]. Volney was born at ], ] (today in ]), 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 ] . He lost his mother, Jeanne Gigault, daughter of 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 ]s at the ], and his ''Mémoire sur la Chronologie d'Hérodote'' (on ]) rose to the attention of the ] and of the group around ]. Soon after, he befriended ], the ], the ], and ].

⚫ 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 is ] and Israel/Palestine, in order to learn ]. 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 the British constitutional set up calling on the French to ignore existing models.<ref>Revolutionary ideas, an intellectual history of the French Revolution from the Rights of Man to Robespierre, 2014 Israel, Jonathan, page 37</ref> He was a member both of the ] and of the ] after the outbreak of the ]. In 1791 his essay on the ] appeared, ''Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires''. It conveys a vision predicting the union of all religions through the recognition of the common truths underlying them all.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Volney, Constantin François Chassebœuf, Comte de|volume=28|page=196}}</ref>
⚫ He embarked on his journey to the East in late 1782 and reached Ottoman Egypt, where he spent nearly seven months. Thereafter, he lived for nearly two years in Greater Syria in what is today Lebanon and Israel/Palestine in order to learn Arabic. In 1785 he returned to France, where he spent the following two years compiling his notes and writing his ''Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie'', which was published in 1787, and ''Considérations sur la guerre des Turcs et de la Russie'' in 1788.


⚫ Volney tried to put his politico-economic theories into practice in ], where in 1792 he bought an ] and made an attempt to cultivate ]. He was imprisoned during the ] triumph, but escaped the ]. He spent some time as a ] of history at the newly founded ].<ref name="EB1911"/>
He was a member both of the ] and of the ] after the outbreak of the ]. In 1791 appeared ''Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires'', an essay on the ], containing a vision which predicts the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all.


Volney was a ].<ref>Morais, Herbert Montfort. (1960). ''Deism in Eighteenth Century America''. Russell & Russell. p. 120</ref><ref>Staum, Martin S. (1996). ''Minerva's Message: Stabilizing the French Revolution''. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 122. {{ISBN|0-7735-1442-2}}</ref>
⚫ Volney tried to put his politico-economic theories into practice in ], where in 1792 he bought an ] and made an attempt to cultivate ]. Chassebœuf de Volney was thrown into prison during the ] triumph, but escaped the ]; he was some time ] of history at the newly founded ].


===Later life=== ===Later life===
⚫ ] (1825)]]
⚫ In 1795 he undertook a journey to the United States, where he was accused (1797) by ]' administration of being a French ] sent to prepare for the reoccupation of ] 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).
⚫ ] (division 41), Paris]]


⚫ In 1795 he undertook a journey to the United States, where he was accused (1797) by ]' administration of being a French ] sent to prepare for the reoccupation of ] 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).<ref name="EB1911"/>
⚫ He was not a partisan of ], but, being a moderate ], was impressed into service by the ], and Napoleon made him a ] and put him into the ]. After the ] he was made a ], upon recognition of his hostility towards the Empire. Chassebœuf became a member of the ] in 1795. In his later years he helped to found oriental studies in France, learning ] from the British linguist ], whom he had helped to protect during the Napoleonic era.

⚫ He was not a partisan of ], but, being a moderate ], was impressed into service by the ], and Napoleon made him a ] and put him into the ]. After the ] he was made a ] by ] in 1814, upon recognition of his hostility towards the Empire. Chassebœuf became a member of the ] in 1795.<ref name="EB1911"/> In his later years he helped to found oriental studies in France, learning ] from the British linguist ], whom he had helped to protect during the Napoleonic era.


He died in Paris and was buried at the ]. He died in Paris and was buried at the ].


===Thomas Jefferson's translation of Volney's ''Ruins of Empires''=== ===Thomas Jefferson's translation of Volney's ''Ruins of Empires''===
Sometime during his stay in the United States, he and ] entered into a secret arrangement whereby Jefferson agreed to translate Volney’s ''Ruins of Empires'' into English. Volney visited ] for two weeks during June of 1796. The two men also met on several occasions at the ] (APS). 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 the ].<ref>Jean Gaulmier’s ''L’Ideologue Volney'', Slatkine Reprints, 1980; Gilbert Chinard’s ''Volney et L’Amerique'', Johns Hopkins Press, 1923; and minutes of meetings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA (1795-98).</ref> English translations of Volney's ''Ruins'' began appearing within a year or so of its first French edition<ref>The British Library ] cites several English translations published in London up to the mid-1790s, the earliest being a 1792 edition published by J. Johnson (ESTC T212858). The earliest American edition cited is that printed by William A. Davis in New York in 1796 (ESTC W22036).</ref> but sometime during Volney's stay in the United States, he and ] entered into a secret arrangement whereby Jefferson agreed to make a new English translation of the work. Volney visited ] for two weeks during June 1796. The two men also met on several occasions at the ], of which Volney had been made a member in 1797.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Constantin+F.+Chasseboeuf+de+Volney&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-03-31|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> 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 the ].<ref>Jean Gaulmier's ''L’Ideologue Volney'', Slatkine Reprints, 1980; Gilbert Chinard's ''Volney et L’Amerique'', Johns Hopkins Press, 1923; and minutes of meetings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA (1795-98).</ref>


Jefferson, then serving as ] under ], appreciated the book’s central theme &ndash; that empires rise if government allows ] 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 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 ] opponents would attack him as an atheist, if it were known he translated Volney’s supposedly-heretical book.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}} Jefferson, then serving as ] under ], appreciated the book's central theme &ndash; that empires rise if government allows ] 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 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 ] opponents would attack him as an atheist, if it were known he translated Volney's supposedly heretical book.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}


According to the evidence discovered by the French researcher ], Jefferson translated the invocation plus the first 20 chapters of the 1802 Paris edition of Volney’s ''Ruins''.<ref>Gilbert Chinard, "Volney et L’Amerique," Johns Hopkins Press, 1923.</ref> 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 ] and didn't have time to finish the last four chapters of the book. In these chapters Volney describes "General Assembly of Nations," 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 ]: According to the evidence discovered by the French researcher ] (1881-1972), Jefferson translated the invocation plus the first 20 chapters of the 1802 Paris edition of Volney's ''Ruins''.<ref>Gilbert Chinard, "Volney et L’Amerique," Johns Hopkins Press, 1923.</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=January 28, 2019|title=From Thomas Jefferson to Volney, 17 March 1801," |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0289|website=Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, ] and did not have time to finish the last four chapters of the book. In these chapters Volney describes "General Assembly of Nations," 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 ]:


<blockquote>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 the world of fantastical beings from the world of realities…<ref>See Chapter 24 of the Jefferson-Barlow translation of Ruins of Empires.</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>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 the world of fantastical beings from the world of realities...<ref>See Chapter 24 of the Jefferson-Barlow translation of Ruins of Empires.</ref></blockquote>


Since Jefferson didn’t have time to complete the ], the last four chapters were translated by ], 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.<ref>Levrault of Paris published two editions of the so-called Jefferson-Barlow translation: 1802 and 1817. Bossange Freres of Paris also published an edition in 1820, the year of Volney’s death. In the United States, Dixon and Sickles of New York published the first American edition of the Jefferson-Barlow translation in 1828. The Jefferson-Barlow translation then went through several reprints during the 19th and 20th centuries, including: Gaylord of Boston (1830s), Calvin Blanchard of New York (no date), Josiah Mendum of Boston (1880s), Peter Eckler of New York (1890s & 1910s-20s), and The Truth Seeker Press of New York (1950). See: Jean Gaulmier, cited above, and Nicole Hafid-Martin, Volney: Bibliographie Des Ecrivains Francais, 1999. The Jefferson-Barlow edition is easily identifiable by this simple test: turn to the Invocation at the front of the book. The first sentence should read: "Hail solitary ruins, holy sepulchres and silent walls! you I invoke; to you I address my prayer!" A copy of the Jefferson-Barlow edition is also available on-line at Gutenberg.org (https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1397)</ref> Since Jefferson did not have time to complete the ], the last four chapters were translated by ], 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.<ref>Levrault of Paris published two editions of the so-called Jefferson-Barlow translation: 1802 and 1817. Bossange Freres of Paris also published an edition in 1820, the year of Volney's death. In the United States, Dixon and Sickles of New York published the first American edition of the Jefferson-Barlow translation in 1828. The Jefferson-Barlow translation then went through several reprints during the 19th and 20th centuries, including: Gaylord of Boston (1830s), Calvin Blanchard of New York (no date), Josiah Mendum of Boston (1880s), Peter Eckler of New York (1890s & 1910s-20s), and The Truth Seeker Press of New York (1950). See: Jean Gaulmier, cited above, and Nicole Hafid-Martin, Volney: Bibliographie Des Ecrivains Francais, 1999. The Jefferson-Barlow edition is easily identifiable by this simple test: turn to the Invocation at the front of the book. The first sentence should read: "Hail solitary ruins, holy sepulchres and silent walls! you I invoke; to you I address my prayer!" A copy of the Jefferson-Barlow edition is also available on-line at Gutenberg.org (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1397)</ref>

===Christ myth theory===
Volney and ] were the first modern writers to advocate the ], the view that ] had no historical existence.<ref>Weaver, Walter P. (1999). ''The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900–1950''. Trinity. pp. 45-50. {{ISBN|1-56338-280-6}}</ref><ref>Jongeneel, Jan A. B. (2009). ''Jesus Christ in World History: His Presence and Representation in Cyclical and Linear Settings''. Peter Lang. p. 172. {{ISBN|978-3-631-59688-3}} "Charles F. Dupuis and Constantin-Francois Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney, were the first to openly deny the historicity of Jesus; they regarded him as a mythological figure and the Gospels as presentations of a myth of predominantly astral nature."</ref> Volney and Dupuis argued that Christianity was an amalgamation of various ancient ] and that Jesus was a mythical character.<ref>]. (2000). ''Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence''. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 7-11. {{ISBN|0-8028-4368-9}}.</ref><ref>]. (2010). ''The Birth of Orientalism''. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 458. {{ISBN|978-0-8122-4261-4}}</ref> However, in his version of the Christ Myth theory, Volney allowed for an obscure historical figure whose life was integrated into a solar mythology.<ref>Wells, G. A. "Stages of New Testament Criticism," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', volume 30, issue 2, 1969</ref><ref>Roberts, Geoff (2011) ''Jesus 888'' Troubador Publishing pg 144</ref> ] and ] were supporters of this theory.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://stellarhousepublishing.com/washington-jefferson-mythicists/ | title=Were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Jesus Mythicists? | date=21 November 2019 }}</ref>

=== In Egypt and Syria ===
In describing ], he attributed its features and head to be characterized as being ]. 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 the most barbaric of slaveries has been sanctioned and questioned whether black men have an intelligence of species of white men."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Volney |first=Comte Constantin François de Chasseboeuf de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dz0VAAAAQAAJ |title=Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, pendant les années 1783, 1784 et 1785: avec deux cartes géographiques et deux planches gravées représentant les Ruines du Temple du Soleil à Balbek, et celles de la ville de Palmyre, dans le désert de Syrie |date=1787 |publisher=Desenne |language=fr}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Volney |first=Constantin-François |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YM-AAAAYAAJ |title=Volney's Ruins, Or Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires |date=1820 |publisher=Bossange |pages=369 |language=en}}</ref>

His story, the Voyage to Egypt and Syria had earned its author the suffrage of ], who sent him a gold medal as a token of her satisfaction; it was in 1787.

=== A Late Marriage ===

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 ]. He then acquired a hotel located on the ], remarkable above all for the pleasantness of a very extensive garden. He remained gruff and sullen to the rest of the world .

==Selected publications==
*''Travels in Syria and Egypt, During the Years 1783, 1784, & 1785'' (, , 1788)
* (1796)
* (1819)
* (1890)

==Legacy==
*] was named after him.
*] was named after him.
*] was named after him.
*] was founded by Constantin Volney in 1803 and was originally a gold medal worth 1,200 ].
*] in ], ] and ] were named after him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://streeteasy.com/building/the-volney#tab_building_detail=1|title = The Volney at 23 East 74th St. In Lenox Hill}}</ref>
*] was named after him in ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].
*] in ], ] and ], ].
*] in ], ].
* An ] of the ] of the ] bears his name.
* ] in ], ].
*] is a ] created in ].
*] was a circle of Artists and Writers in ].
Those are some of the places and things in the ] and ], which were named after him.


==See also== ==See also==
Line 37: Line 92:
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ] - Misplaced Pages, in French
* ] - Misplaced Pages, in French


==References== ==References==
Line 42: Line 99:


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
* Borowski, Audrey. "The universal history to bring all universal histories to an end: the curious case of Volney" Intellectual History Review (2023) https://doi.org/10.1080 /17496977.2023.2179907

* Caron, Nathalie. "Friendship, Secrecy, Transatlantic Networks and the Enlightenment: The Jefferson-Barlow Version of Volney's Ruines (Paris, 1802)." ''Mémoires du livre/Studies in Book Culture'' 11.1 (2019).
* François Furstenberg, ''When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation.'' New York: Penguin, 2014. * Furstenberg, François. ''When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation''. New York: Penguin (2014).
* C.F. Volney, ''Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie.'' Paris: Courcier, 1807. | .
* Katschnig, Gerhard. "The supportive voice in the midst of solitude and melancholy: Volney's génie des tombeaux et des ruines." ''History of European Ideas'' 47.6 (2021): 958–973.
* C.F. Volney, '''' Vol. II of II.
* Kim, Minchul. "Volney and the French Revolution." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 79.2 (2018): 221–242.


==External links== ==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author|id=Volney,+C.-F.+(Constantin-François)|name=Constantin-François Volney}} * {{Gutenberg author|id=622|name=Constantin-François Volney}}
* {{Internet Archive author|search=(Constantin Volney)}} * {{Internet Archive author|search=(Constantin Volney)}}
* '''', an English edition republished in 1920, ] format
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Volney, Constantin François Chassebœuf, Comte de|short=x}}
* . This version of the text does not use the ], and may be easier for contemporary readers to understand.


{{s-start}} {{s-start}}
{{s-culture}} {{s-culture}}
{{succession box|title=]<br>]|years=1803–1820|before=]|after=]}} {{succession box|title=]<br />]|years=1803–1820|before=]|after=]}}
{{s-end}} {{s-end}}


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Latest revision as of 23:46, 21 November 2024

French philosopher and politician
Volney
Portrait of Volney by Gilbert Stuart (Philadelphia, PAFA, 1795)
Born3 February 1757
Craon, Anjou, Kingdom of France
Died25 April 1820(1820-04-25) (aged 63)
Paris, Kingdom of France

Constantin-François Chassebœuf de La Giraudais (French: [kɔ̃stɑ̃tɛ̃ fʁɑ̃sua ʃasəbœf də la ʒiʁodɛ]), comte de Volney (1757–1820), 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 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 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, the Asiatic Society and the Celtic Academy, he wrote on ancient history and created a “universal alphabet”.

Life

Early life and the French Revolution

Sketch of Volney

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 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 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 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 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 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 was a deist.

Later life

Bust of Volney by David d'Angers (1825)
Tomb of Volney, Père Lachaise Cemetery (division 41), Paris

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 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 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.

Thomas Jefferson's translation of Volney's Ruins of Empires

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 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 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 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 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," 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 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.

Christ myth theory

Volney and Charles-François Dupuis were 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 Egypt and Syria

In describing 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 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, 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.

A Late Marriage

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 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 .

Selected publications

Legacy

Those are some of the places and things in the United States of America and France, which were named after him.

See also

References

  1. Revolutionary ideas, an intellectual history of the French Revolution from the Rights of Man to Robespierre, 2014 Israel, Jonathan, page 37
  2. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Volney, Constantin François Chassebœuf, Comte de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 196.
  3. Morais, Herbert Montfort. (1960). Deism in Eighteenth Century America. Russell & Russell. p. 120
  4. Staum, Martin S. (1996). Minerva's Message: Stabilizing the French Revolution. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 122. ISBN 0-7735-1442-2
  5. The British Library English Short Title Catalogue cites several English translations published in London up to the mid-1790s, the earliest being a 1792 edition published by J. Johnson (ESTC T212858). The earliest American edition cited is that printed by William A. Davis in New York in 1796 (ESTC W22036).
  6. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  7. Jean Gaulmier's L’Ideologue Volney, Slatkine Reprints, 1980; Gilbert Chinard's Volney et L’Amerique, Johns Hopkins Press, 1923; and minutes of meetings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA (1795-98).
  8. Gilbert Chinard, "Volney et L’Amerique," Johns Hopkins Press, 1923.
  9. "From Thomas Jefferson to Volney, 17 March 1801,"". Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 33, 17 February–30 April 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 341–342. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  10. See Chapter 24 of the Jefferson-Barlow translation of Ruins of Empires.
  11. Levrault of Paris published two editions of the so-called Jefferson-Barlow translation: 1802 and 1817. Bossange Freres of Paris also published an edition in 1820, the year of Volney's death. In the United States, Dixon and Sickles of New York published the first American edition of the Jefferson-Barlow translation in 1828. The Jefferson-Barlow translation then went through several reprints during the 19th and 20th centuries, including: Gaylord of Boston (1830s), Calvin Blanchard of New York (no date), Josiah Mendum of Boston (1880s), Peter Eckler of New York (1890s & 1910s-20s), and The Truth Seeker Press of New York (1950). See: Jean Gaulmier, cited above, and Nicole Hafid-Martin, Volney: Bibliographie Des Ecrivains Francais, 1999. The Jefferson-Barlow edition is easily identifiable by this simple test: turn to the Invocation at the front of the book. The first sentence should read: "Hail solitary ruins, holy sepulchres and silent walls! you I invoke; to you I address my prayer!" A copy of the Jefferson-Barlow edition is also available on-line at Gutenberg.org (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1397)
  12. Weaver, Walter P. (1999). The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900–1950. Trinity. pp. 45-50. ISBN 1-56338-280-6
  13. Jongeneel, Jan A. B. (2009). Jesus Christ in World History: His Presence and Representation in Cyclical and Linear Settings. Peter Lang. p. 172. ISBN 978-3-631-59688-3 "Charles F. Dupuis and Constantin-Francois Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney, were the first to openly deny the historicity of Jesus; they regarded him as a mythological figure and the Gospels as presentations of a myth of predominantly astral nature."
  14. Van Voorst, Robert E. (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 7-11. ISBN 0-8028-4368-9.
  15. App, Urs. (2010). The Birth of Orientalism. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 458. ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4
  16. Wells, G. A. "Stages of New Testament Criticism," Journal of the History of Ideas, volume 30, issue 2, 1969
  17. Roberts, Geoff (2011) Jesus 888 Troubador Publishing pg 144
  18. "Were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Jesus Mythicists?". 21 November 2019.
  19. Volney, Comte Constantin François de Chasseboeuf de (1787). Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, pendant les années 1783, 1784 et 1785: avec deux cartes géographiques et deux planches gravées représentant les Ruines du Temple du Soleil à Balbek, et celles de la ville de Palmyre, dans le désert de Syrie (in French). Desenne.
  20. Volney, Constantin-François (1820). Volney's Ruins, Or Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires. Bossange. p. 369.
  21. "The Volney at 23 East 74th St. In Lenox Hill".

Further reading

  • Borowski, Audrey. "The universal history to bring all universal histories to an end: the curious case of Volney" Intellectual History Review (2023) https://doi.org/10.1080 /17496977.2023.2179907
  • Caron, Nathalie. "Friendship, Secrecy, Transatlantic Networks and the Enlightenment: The Jefferson-Barlow Version of Volney's Ruines (Paris, 1802)." Mémoires du livre/Studies in Book Culture 11.1 (2019). online
  • Furstenberg, François. When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation. New York: Penguin (2014).
  • Katschnig, Gerhard. "The supportive voice in the midst of solitude and melancholy: Volney's génie des tombeaux et des ruines." History of European Ideas 47.6 (2021): 958–973.
  • Kim, Minchul. "Volney and the French Revolution." Journal of the History of Ideas 79.2 (2018): 221–242.

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