A learned friend, in his very agreeable "Trimestre, or a Three Months'
Journey in France and Switzerland," could not pass through the small
town of Trevoux without a literary association of ideas which should
accompany every man of letters in his tours, abroad or at home. A mind
well-informed cannot travel without discovering that there are objects
constantly presenting themselves, which _suggest_ literary, historical,
and moral facts. My friend writes, "As you proceed nearer to Lyons you
stop to dine at Trevoux, on the left bank of the Saone. On a sloping
hill, down to the water-side, rises an amphitheatre, crowned with an
ancient Gothic castle, in venerable ruin; under it is the small town of
Trevoux, well known for its Journal and Dictionary, which latter is
almost an encyclopaedia, as _there are few things of which something is
not said in that most valuable compilation_, and the whole was printed
at Trevoux. The knowledge of this circumstance greatly enhances the
delight of any visitor who has consulted the book, and is acquainted
with its merit; and must add much to his local pleasures."
A work from which every man of letters may be continually deriving such
varied knowledge, and which is little known but to the most curious
readers, claims a place in these volumes; nor is the history of the work
itself without interest. Eight large folios, each consisting of a
thousand closely printed pages, stand like a vast mountain, of which,
before we climb, we may be anxious to learn the security of the passage.
The history of dictionaries is the most mutable of all histories; it is
a picture of the inconstancy of the knowledge of man; the learning of
one generation passes away with another; and a dictionary of this kind
is always to be repaired, to be rescinded, and to be enlarged.
The small town of Trevoux gave its name to an excellent literary
journal, long conducted by the Jesuits, and to this dictionary--as
Edinburgh has to its Critical Review and Annual Register, &c. It first
came to be distinguished as a literary town from the Duc du Maine, as
prince sovereign of Dombes,[154] transferring to this little town of
Trevoux not only his parliament and other public institutions, but also
establishing a magnificent printing-house, in the beginning of the last
century. The duke, probably to keep his printers in constant employ,
instituted the "_Journal de Trevoux_;" and this perhaps greatly tended
to bring the printing-house into notice, so that it became a favourite
with many good writers, who appear to have had no other connexion with
the place; and this dictionary borrowed its first title, which it always
preserved, merely from the place where it was printed. Both the journal
and the dictionary were, however, consigned to the care of some learned
Jesuits; and perhaps the place always indicated the principles of the
writers, of whom none were more eminent for elegant literature than the
Jesuits.[155]
The first edition of this dictionary sprung from the spirit of rivalry,
occasioned by a French dictionary published in Holland, by the
protestant Basnage de Beauval. The duke set his Jesuits hastily to work;
who, after a pompous announcement that this dictionary was formed on a
plan suggested by their patron, did little more than pillage Furetiere,
and rummage Basnage, and produced three new folios without any
novelties; they pleased the Duc du Maine, and no one else. This was in
1704. Twenty years after, it was republished and improved; and editions
increasing, the volumes succeeded each other, till it reached to its
present magnitude and value in eight large folios, in 1771, the only
edition now esteemed. Many of the names of the contributors to this
excellent collection of words and things, the industry of Monsieur
Barbier has revealed in his "Dictionnaire des Anonymes," art. 10782. The
work, in the progress of a century, evidently became a favourite
receptacle with men of letters in France, who eagerly contributed the
smallest or largest articles with a zeal honourable to literature and
most useful to the public. They made this dictionary their commonplace
book for all their curious acquisitions; every one competent to write a
short article, preserving an important fact, did not aspire to compile
the dictionary, or even an entire article in it; but it was a treasury
in which such mites collected together formed its wealth; and all the
literati may be said to have engaged in perfecting these volumes during
a century. In this manner, from the humble beginnings of three volumes,
in which the plagiary much more than the contributor was visible, eight
were at length built up with more durable materials, and which claim the
attention and the gratitude of the student.
The work, it appears, interested the government itself, as a national
concern, from the tenor of the following anecdotes.
Most of the minor contributors to this great collection were satisfied
to remain anonymous; but as might be expected among such a number,
sometimes a contributor was anxious to be known to his circle; and did
not like this penitential abstinence of fame. An anecdote recorded of
one of this class will amuse: A Monsieur Lautour du Chatel, avocat au
parlement de Normandie, voluntarily devoted his studious hours to
improve this work, and furnished nearly three thousand articles to the
supplement of the edition of 1752. This ardent scholar had had a lively
quarrel thirty years before with the first authors of the dictionary. He
had sent them one thousand three hundred articles, on condition that the
donor should be handsomely thanked in the preface of the new edition,
and further receive a copy _en grand papier_. They were accepted. The
conductors of the new edition, in 1721, forgot all the promises--nor
thanks, nor copy! Our learned avocat, who was a little irritable, as his
nephew who wrote his life acknowledges, as soon as the great work
appeared, astonished, like Dennis, that "they were rattling his own
thunder," without saying a word, quits his country town, and ventures,
half dead with sickness and indignation, on an expedition to Paris, to
make his complaint to the chancellor; and the work was deemed of that
importance in the eye of government, and so zealous a contributor was
considered to have such an honourable claim, that the chancellor
ordered, first, that a copy on large paper should be immediately
delivered to Monsieur Lautour, richly bound and free of carriage; and
secondly, as a reparation of the unperformed promise, and an
acknowledgment of gratitude, the omission of thanks should be inserted
and explained in the three great literary journals of France; a curious
instance, among others, of the French government often mediating, when
difficulties occurred in great literary undertakings, and considering
not lightly the claims and the honours of men of letters.
Another proof, indeed, of the same kind, concerning the present work,
occurred after the edition of 1752. One Jamet l'aine, who had with
others been usefully employed on this edition, addressed a proposal to
government for an improved one, dated from the Bastile. He proposed that
the government should choose a learned person, accustomed to the labour
of the researches such a work requires; and he calculated, that if
supplied with three amanuenses, such an editor would accomplish his task
in about ten or twelve years, the produce of the edition would soon
repay all the expenses and capital advanced. This literary projector did
not wish to remain idle in the Bastile. Fifteen years afterwards the
last improved edition appeared, published by the associated booksellers
of Paris.
As for the work itself, it partakes of the character of our
Encyclopaedias; but in this respect it cannot be safely consulted, for
widely has science enlarged its domains and corrected its errors since
1771. But it is precious as a vast collection of ancient and modern
learning, particularly in that sort of knowledge which we usually term
antiquarian and philological. It is not merely a grammatical,
scientific, and technical dictionary, but it is replete with divinity,
law, moral philosophy, critical and historical learning, and abounds
with innumerable miscellaneous curiosities. It would be difficult,
whatever may be the subject of inquiry, to open it, without the
gratification of some knowledge neither obvious nor trivial. I heard a
man of great learning declare, that whenever he could not recollect his
knowledge he opened Hoffman's _Lexicon Universale Historicum_, where he
was sure to find what he had lost. The works are similar; and valuable
as are the German's four folios, the eight of the Frenchman may safely
be recommended as their substitute, or their supplement. As a Dictionary
of the French Language it bears a peculiar feature, which has been
presumptuously dropped in the Dictionnaire de l'Academie; the last
invents phrases to explain words, which therefore have no other
authority than the writer himself! this of Trevoux is furnished, not
only with mere authorities, but also with quotations from the classical
French writers--an improvement which was probably suggested by the
English Dictionary of Johnson. One nation improves by another.