Auteur: van der Zande, Johan
Titre: The Microscope of Experience: Christian Garve’s Translation of Cicero’s De Officiis (1783)
Revue/Collection: Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 59, Number 1
Annèe edition: 1998
Pages: 75-94
Mots-clès: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: [Abstract] During the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Teschen of 1779, ending the phony War of Bavarian Succession, Frederick II and his court stayed in Breslau, the capital of Silesia. There, in conversation with Christian Garve, the city's most famous son, the king strongly recommended a new German translation of Cicero's On Moral Duties (De Officiis), one of the classical texts of humanist philosophy and his favorite book. Frederick's faithful subject dutifully obliged his sovereign. Four years later, in the subservient language of a dedication to a royal patron, Garve offered in due obedience to Frederick a result that, "perhaps flawed," was "vindicated by the efforts directed toward the execution of the command." Yet Garve's interest in Cicero differed markedly from that of Frederick. After all, as Garve wrote in the preface to the philosophical commentary on his translation, Cicero's book was written for "persons of the higher classes who participated in the affairs of state" and for whom "moral prescription often transformed into political instruction." Clearly that was not the world in which Garve lived. The son of an artisan, Garve, after a...
Oeuvres:
Sigle auteur: Zande 1998
Titre: The Microscope of Experience: Christian Garve’s Translation of Cicero’s De Officiis (1783)
Revue/Collection: Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 59, Number 1
Annèe edition: 1998
Pages: 75-94
Mots-clès: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: [Abstract] During the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Teschen of 1779, ending the phony War of Bavarian Succession, Frederick II and his court stayed in Breslau, the capital of Silesia. There, in conversation with Christian Garve, the city's most famous son, the king strongly recommended a new German translation of Cicero's On Moral Duties (De Officiis), one of the classical texts of humanist philosophy and his favorite book. Frederick's faithful subject dutifully obliged his sovereign. Four years later, in the subservient language of a dedication to a royal patron, Garve offered in due obedience to Frederick a result that, "perhaps flawed," was "vindicated by the efforts directed toward the execution of the command." Yet Garve's interest in Cicero differed markedly from that of Frederick. After all, as Garve wrote in the preface to the philosophical commentary on his translation, Cicero's book was written for "persons of the higher classes who participated in the affairs of state" and for whom "moral prescription often transformed into political instruction." Clearly that was not the world in which Garve lived. The son of an artisan, Garve, after a...
Oeuvres:
Sigle auteur: Zande 1998
