Just a side note on Desmoulins: unfortunately (I mean from a classicist/philologist interested in the reception of Ancient world) it seems that Desmoulins modeled the whole Tacitean issues of the Vieux Cordelier from a French translation (by Pierre Daudé) of Gordon's Discours on Tacitus. I think there is a discussion on this issue in the preface of Calvet's edition (unfortunately I do not have it in Senate House, so I am not 100% sure) and there is also an article by R. Hammersley, `Camille Desmoulins' Le Vieux Cordelier: a link between English and French Republicanism', which you might know. There are bit and pieces from different Latin sources (he apparently ascribes to Tacitus bit that are in Suetonius), but I can't say if it all goes back to Gordon's book, as I haven't read it yet. (By the way, my overall impression is that quotations from direct sources or direct translation are relatively rare -with the exception of Saint-Just who loved to play a lot at least with Cicero; I suspend my judgment on Robespierre's work as I have not started yet to analyse his references because nor I nor my library has got a decent edition of all his works).
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Digression
Date: 2011-11-24 07:46 am (UTC)There are bit and pieces from different Latin sources (he apparently ascribes to Tacitus bit that are in Suetonius), but I can't say if it all goes back to Gordon's book, as I haven't read it yet. (By the way, my overall impression is that quotations from direct sources or direct translation are relatively rare -with the exception of Saint-Just who loved to play a lot at least with Cicero; I suspend my judgment on Robespierre's work as I have not started yet to analyse his references because nor I nor my library has got a decent edition of all his works).