Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud

Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud (1675, Paris – 24 June 1760, Paris) was a French writer and translator.

His life and work

He studied with the

The name of Mirabaud remains associated with that of Baron d'Holbach, who had his Système de la Nature published under Jean-Baptiste Mirabaud's name in 1770. Voltaire, who violently condemned the Baron's work, denounced the deception thus "Alas! our good Mirabaud was not capable of writing a single page of the book of our redoutable adversary."^[1]

On his death in 1760, Buffon gave him a glowing homage : "Mirabaud always joined feeling to esprit, and we liked to read him just as we liked to hear him ; but he had so little attachment to what he produced, he so feared the noise and glare, that he sacrificed those which could contribute most to his glory .^[2]

Publications

Philosophy and history

• Sentiments des philosophes sur la nature de l'âme (1743). Published by
  Fontenelle in his Nouvelles libertés de penser. Online text
• Le Monde, son origine et son antiquité. De l'Âme et de son immortalité (1751). Published by César Chesneau Du Marsais and Jean-Baptiste Le Mascrier. Online text 1 2
• Opinions des anciens sur les juifs (posthumously, 1769). Reissue : Hachette, Paris, 1972. Online text
• Réflexions impartiales sur l'Évangile (posthumously, 1769). Work also attributed to baron d'Holbach. Online text

Translations

• Jérusalem délivrée, poème héroïque du Tasse, nouvellement traduit en françois (2 volumes, 1724)
• Roland furieux, poème héroïque de l'Arioste, traduction nouvelle (4 volumes, 1741)

Notes

External links

• Biographical note on the Académie française site
• Portrait of Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Bildarchiv Austria