The Royal Commentaries in the Age of Enlightenment: the French translation of 1744

Abstract

The Royal Commentaries was widely read among the French encyclopaedists. Until that period, the best known translation was the one from 1633, by Jean Baudoin, of which several reprints were made. The translation from 1744, which is discussed in this article, was published in a scientific and commercial context in which Paris constituted one of the main centers of European knowledge, where Le jardin du Roi of medicinal plants occupied a privileged space. In this translation, the editor had a special interest in the sections of the Royal Commentaries concerning the natural history of Peru, a knowledge that was enriched with the observations of travellers and scientific expeditions.