Information about the author:
Andrey V. Golubkov
Andrey V. Golubkov, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia; National Research university “Higher School of Economics”, Pokrovskiy Bd., 11, 109028 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7069-1033
E-mail:
Abstract:
This study presents the translation into Russian of the collection “Various Thoughts” (1678) created by the 17th-century French writer Abbot Nicolas d’Ailly; his work was published as an appendix to the collection “Maxims” by M. de Souvray, marquise de Sablé. Our translation is provided with commentary, as well as an introductory note, which reveals the place of Nicolas d’Ailly in the literary history of France in the “Great Century”. In the process of analysis, we demonstrate in the introductory note that Abbot was a secretary of Marquise de Sablé, whose circle also included F. La Rochefoucauld, Jacques Esprit, at an early stage B. Pascal, as well as a number of famous scholars from the monastery of Port Royal. Under the influence of Jansenism, as well as the gallant tradition, the Sablé’s Salon turned to the compilation of aphorisms. While at the initial stage this work was collaborative, in the mid-1660s various trends were revealed, i. e. the tendency of La Rochefoucauld towards maxim and of Esprit towards coherent treatise. The writings of the marquise de Sablé and the Abbot turn out to be valuable evidence of the early collective stage of aphorism evolution.
