The Itinerary of a Translator, from the Revolution to the Restoration. Pierre-Francois Henry, Translator of James Harrington

Résumé 0

The American and French Revolutions and the transatlantic discussions about the constitutions of the United States afforded a wider attention in France to the political works of Harrington, which were translated by the jurist Pierre-Francois Henry in the Year III. Why is it that Oceana, considered as the most profound republican work of the period of the Commonwealth, was only translated at the very end of the Convention? What can the personality of the translator reveal about the nature of his project to transmit the texts of this English writer? Research on the intellectual itinerary of Pierre-Francois Henry and his presentation of the political work of Harrington can shed light on the means of transferring the conceptual resources in the thinking of Harrington in the eighteenth century and the evolution of political ideas in the context of their reception under the Revolution. The translation of Oceana was not aimed at proposing a model, but rather at stimulating reflection about the foundations of republican liberty.