![]() Our manuscript, written around 1753, was most likely made from one of these later copies, as it appears to conform (except for trivial differences) to the 1729 manuscript used by Carozzi to reconstruct Maillet’s original text. Carozzi, in the introduction to his annotated English translation of Maillet’s original text, notes the existence of seven early Telliamed manuscripts, two written between 17 (and thus not containing some of Maillet’s later additions), and five written between 17. However, it would seem-given the existence of our 1753 manuscript-that even after Telliamed’s publication there remained a demand for Maillet’s even more scandalous original version, which would necessarily have had to keep circulating “underground” in manuscript as before.Īlbert V. The published version provoked outrage from the clergy and other orthodox thinkers, but despite (or because of) this, it became something of a best-seller. Recognizing the unorthodox and dangerous nature of Maillet’s system of geology, Mascrier reworked Maillet’s text extensively in an attempt-ultimately unsuccessful-to reconcile it with Christian dogma.Īfter Maillet’s death, fearing possible repercussions, the Abbé waited ten years to publish his bowdlerized version of Telliamed-the first printed edition, issued in Amsterdam, appeared in 1748, followed by a second in 1749 and a third in 1755. Between 1732 and his death in 1738 Maillet worked with the Abbé Jean Baptiste de Mascrier to prepare Telliamed for publication, sending Mascrier updates to the text as he made them. Maillet retained his original draft of the work (now lost), but made numerous additions and changes to it over the years to incorporate new information, some of which appears only in certain manuscript versions. Written between 16, when Maillet was serving as the king of France’s general consul in Egypt, Telliamed began circulating in various manuscript versions after the author’s return to France in 1720. Maillet was thus a forerunner of 19th-century uniformitarian geologists, and he also anticipated Lamarck in claiming that present-day terrestrial life forms had adapted themselves from ancient marine flora and fauna through a process of transformation. “Indeed, the concept of a personified God as a ruler and creator of everything was refuted and an eternal universe, undergoing natural changes under the effects of chance, was assumed” (Carozzi, p. Maillet’s thesis was extremely unorthodox for its time: He believed, based on his researches, that the earth had once been covered by a universal ocean, and he attributed all of the planet’s geological features to the gradual diminution of this ocean, applying present-day marine mechanisms to a geologic past stretching back at least two billion years-a direct contradiction of the Biblical account of creation. The manuscript was almost certainly copied from one of the early manuscripts of Telliamed, and would therefore likely be far closer to Maillet's original text rather than the heavily edited printed version. Our manuscript, written circa 1753, represents a highly unusual, possibly unique case of a scientific work continuing to be copied and read in manuscript even after its appearance in print. ![]() Mid-Eighteenth-Century Manuscript of Maillet’s Telliamed, which presented such a radical and materialistic view of geology and Earth history that it circulated only in manuscript form for nearly three decades, remaining unpublished until ten years after its author’s death. 18th-century bookplate engraved with arms of the house of Coligny, a noble French family. ![]() 18th-century French calf, gilt spine with leather label, front hinge a bit worn, head of spine and one corner expertly restored. Manuscript in a neat and legible scribal hand. Nouveau systême du monde ou entretiens de Teliamed philosophe indien avec un missionaire françois, au passage que fit au Caire ce philosophe, aux années 1715 et 1716, ecrits par le missionaire en 1724 a un de ses amis. Mirabaud, one of the forty members of and perpetual secretary to the French Academy.Maillet, Benoit de Nouveau système du monde ou entretiens de Teliamed philosophe indien. Philosophy Forms: Essays Translation Status: Source-textĪuthor Related resources has other edition Le vrai sens du système de la nature has translation has translation The system of nature, or, the laws of the moral and physical world. Système de la nature, ou Des loix du monde physique et du monde moral
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