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Edmé-François Mallet

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Edmé-François Mallet, also abbé Mallet (29 January 1713, Melun – 25 September 1755, Châteaurenard), was an eighteenth-century French theologian and encyclopédiste.[1][2][3]

Biography

Edmé-François Mallet received his first education from the country priest in his home-town and later studied at the college of the Barnabites in Montargis, before going to Paris. There, he tutored Ange Laurent Lalive de Jully (1725-1779), a future Announcer of ambassadors [fr] as well as honorary member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.[4]

He entered into license in 1742 at the Faculty of Theology of Paris and was an Associate in the House and Royal Society of Navarre. It was customary at the end of licenses, that the two first places went to the priors of Sorbonne, the following two to the most talented graduates and the fifth to the best student without diplomas. Mallet won fifth place unanimously. During his studies in Paris, he was also temporarily private teacher of the Fermier Général Louis Denis Lalive de Bellegarde (1680-1751).

In 1744, he returned to his family in Melun and remained there for seven years. In 1747, he published an Essai sur l’étude des belles-lettres. After his mother's death in 1751, he moved back to Paris and took a chair of theology at the Collège de Navarre.

In 1753, he published an Essai sur les bienséances oratoires and Principes pour la lecture des Orateurs in three volumes. In 1754, his Principes pour la lecture des Poëtes was published. He also translated a Histoire de Davila, which was published only after his death. At this time, he began to gather sources to address two major projects: Histoire générale de toutes les guerres de France de l’établissement de la monarchie jusqu’à Louis XIV and a History of the Council of Trent.

For the Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, he wrote more than a thousand articles, with a focus on trading (over 500 articles), theology, history (about 600 ones) and literature (200), but he died of angina well before the completion of the project. His articles represented compilations from previously published texts, including reference works. Several of his articles with historical content were revised by Nicolas Lenglet Du Fresnoy and edited by Jean-François Marmontel for their literary aspect.

Controversies

If Abbé Mallet demonstrated a great erudition, his stance and categorical tone in theological articles may lead the reader to wonder why he was chosen as a contributor for such articles when Diderot, the work's editor, sought to relativize and even ridicule religion. Indeed, Mallet demonstrated a strict orthodoxy and manifested a fierce hatred for all heretical beliefs.

It may be that Father Mallet was recommended as a contributor by Jean-François Boyer, the Bishop of Mirepoix, a bitter enemy of the Jansenist and the Philosophes, and it is possible that Mallet was a Trojan Horse in his service. But it is also possible that he acted as a safeguard: If the Encyclopédie, early on, had gone beyond what was then acceptable in religion and theology, perhaps the project would have failed or encountered more problems than it did.

References

  1. ^ Frank A. Kafker & Jacques Chouillet, Notices sur les auteurs des dix-sept volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie, Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie (1990), vol. 8, pp. 101–102.
  2. ^ Encyclopédie (1756), vol. 6, pp. iii–v.
  3. ^ Edme Mallet, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
  4. ^ Holzhey, Helmut; Mudroch, Vilem; Ueberweg, Friedrich; Rohbeck, Johannes: Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie: Die Philosophie des 18. Jahrhunderts. 2 Halbbde. Schwabe-Verlag, Basel (2008) ISBN 978-3-7965-2445-5, (p. 289–290)

Main works

  • 1747: Essai sur l’étude des belles-lettres
  • 1753: Principes pour la lecture des orateurs.
  • 1753: Essai sur les bienséances oratoires

Bibliography

  • John Rogister: Louis XV and the Parlement of Paris, 1737-55. Cambridge University Press (2010) ISBN 0-5218-9336-4 S. 241
  • Dorothy Caiger Senghas: The Abbé Mallet: contributor to the Encyclopédie. Davis, University of California (1968), Dissertation
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