Charles Rollin
Statut : Author
1661-1741
Notes : Son of a master cutler and himself trained as a master cutler while he was still adolescent, Charles Rollin came under the protection of a Benedictine priest and obtained a grant to attend the collège du Plessis and then to study theology at the Sorbonne. In 1683, he returned to the collège du Plessis as professor of the second class, and then of rhetoric. Holder from 1688, of the chair of eloquence at the Collège de France, he became in 1699, head of the collège de Beauvais, while in 1694 he was nominated rector of the University. In1701 he entered the Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres. This brilliant career was brusquely terminated because of the intransigence of his jansenist convictions ; rather than submit to the papal bull “Unigenitus”, Rollin preferred to be sent back to the Collège de Beauvais (1712), dismissed from his post as rector and excluded from the Councils of the University. Once again appointed rector in 1720, he was only able to maintain himself in post for three months. Thereafter he devoted himself to writing : from 1726 to 1731, he published « Traité des études ou de la manière d’enseigner et d’étudier les belles-lettres, par rapport à l’esprit et le cœur », from 1731 to 1738 the voluminous « Histoire ancienne ». His unfinished “Histoire romaine”, partly published posthumously, appeared between 1738 and 1748.
If Rollin remains deliberately, as his preface bears witness, in the wake of the theologies of history whose last great representative is Bossuet, the interpretation of « profane » events which he offers in the body of his narrative no longer rests truly on divine intervention (with a few exceptions, notably the conquests of Alexander). On the other hand, if he subscribes to the perspective of the ancient Ciceronian “historia magistra vitae”, it is in order to persist in the moral and educational aims of history, in an age when these are being called in question. The thread that runs through his historical works on antiquity appears defined as the task of history in his “Traité d’études”: « (…) Thus history, when it is properly taught, becomes a school of virtue for all men. It denounces vices, it unmasks false virtues, it exposes errors and false judgments, it dissipates the seductive prestige of wealth and all the vain splendour that enchants mankind (…). From the estime and the admiration which the most corrupt cannot deny to the great and fine actions with which she presents them, she establishes the conclusion that virtue is the true benefit for man, and that she alone makes it truly great and estimable ».
The work of Rollin passed through many editions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the most important are those of François Guizot (1821-1826) and of the epigraphist Jean-Antoine Letronne (1821-1825), which demonstrate the regard that the nineteenth century retained for the historiography of the eighteenth.
See also: Crevier, Jean Baptiste Louis.
Traductions :
- Auteur de Ancient History of the Egyptians..new edition (1820)
- Auteur de The Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres..Fourth edition (1749)
- Auteur de The Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres, or an Introduction to languages, poetry, rhetoric, history, moral philosophy, physicks, etc. (1734)
- Auteur de Berühmte Männer des Alterthums (1880)
- Auteur de Historie alter Zeiten u. Völker, der Aegypter u. Assyrer; aus d. Französ. übers. (1763)
- Auteur de Ancient History of the Egyptians..a new edition, revised, corrected and illustrated with a new set of maps (1829)
- Auteur de Abbt [Jacques] Tailhier [vielm. Tailhé]. Ausz. aus der Historie alter Zeiten und Völker. Nach d. neuesten Ausg., von neuem übers. (1778)
- Auteur de The Roman history from the foundation of Rome to the battle of Actium..Translated from the French..The second edition (1754)
- Auteur de The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles Lettres..The second edition (1737)
- Auteur de Geschichte Alexanders des Großen. Wortgetreu nach H.R. Mecklenburgs Grundsätzen übers.v. R.T. (1888)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, etc. (1827)
- Auteur de The History of Ancient Egypt. From Rollin and the Encyclopaedia Britannica [Encyclopaedia Bangalensis, no. 6] (1847)
- Auteur de Auszug der Historie alter Zeiten und Völker des Herrn Rollin (1750-53)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Grecians and Macedonians. Translated from the French [with maps and a portrait] (c1830)
- Auteur de The antient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians…Translated from the French (1763)
- Auteur de RIMSKAYA ISTORIYA OT SOZDANIYA RIMA DO BITVY AKTIISKOI, TO EST' PO OKONCHANII RESPUBLIKI. (1761-1767)
- Auteur de The Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres..Translated from the French (1737)
- Auteur de Römische Historie von Erbauung der Stadt Rom bis auf die Schlacht bei Actium oder das Ende der Republic (1759-63)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians..Embellished with engravings [with maps] (1780?)
- Auteur de New Thoughts concerning Education…Done from the French, with notes (1735)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians…The twelfth edition [with a portrait] (1813)
- Auteur de The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles Lettres…The fifth edition (1758)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians…new edition, revised (1810)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians… The seventh edition.. (1780)
- Auteur de The method of teaching and studying the belles lettres..Sixth edition (1768)
- Auteur de Römische Historie, von Erbauung der Stadt Rom bis auf dei Schlacht von Actium oder das Ende der Republik. Aus dem Französischen (1752-63)
- Auteur de Anleitung, den Homer zu lesen (1847)
- Auteur de The method of teaching and studying the belles lettres… (1770)
- Auteur de Berühmte Männer des Alterthums. Wortgetreu nach H.R. Mecklenburg's Grundsätzen übers. v. R.T. (1885-7)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1841)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Cathaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians. With illustrations (1881,2)
- Auteur de Ancient history: containing the history of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Lydians, Persians, Macedonians, the Seleucidae in Syria, the Parthians, and Carthaginians. From Rollin, and other authentic sources ancient and modern (1842)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians..Translated from the French. The second edition, corrected. (1738-40)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians The fifth edition, illustrated with copper-plates, and set of maps of ancient geography, etc. (1768)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1774)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1800)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1808)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1821)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (1841)
- Auteur de Ancient Greek painting being a translation from Rollin's Ancient History to which are added some remarks on an ancient Greek portrait of a certain man named Perseus (1901)
- Auteur de A concise history of the antiquities of Egypt (1755)
- Auteur de The history of Cyrus, King of Persia, shewing the fulfilment of scripture prophecy. In the destruction of Babylon and the release of the Jews from their captivity ([c.1805])
- Auteur de The Roman history from the foundation of Rome to the battle of Actium: that is to the end of the commonwealth (1768)
- Auteur de Ancient history, remodelled from Rollin, with notes and extracts from modern authors (1843)
- Auteur de An ancient history, abridged from Rollin, for the use of young people (1849)
- Auteur de Abrégé de l'histoire ancienne de Rollin à l'usage des jeunes gens (1744)
- Auteur de Geschichte Alexanders des Großen (1880)
- Auteur de Compendiosa Descrizione di alcune funzioni de' Romani necessarie da sapersi per l'intendimento della storia romana (1780)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians..illustrated with plates (1803)
- Auteur de The Method of Teaching and Studying the belles lettres…Translated from the French…The eleventh edition (1778)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians..Eighth edition (1788)
- Auteur de ROLLEN DLYA YUNOSHESTVA , ILI NACHERTANIE DREVNEI ISTORII, SODERZHSHCHIE V SEBE ISTORIYU EGIPTYAN, PERSOV, GREKOV, RIIMLYAN. (1822)
- Auteur de Historie alter Zeiten und Völcker[sic], der Aegyptier, Carthaginenser, Assyrer, Babylonier, Meder, Perser, Macedonier und Griechen (1738-48)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians,.. The third edition, corrected. (1749)
- Auteur de Historia antigua de los Egipcios, de los Asiriios, de los Babilonios..de los Griegos..y de los Romanos..de las dos que separadamente escrivio Mr. Rollin (1755-61)
- Auteur de Of the important advantages of a virtuous education. In: The young student's assistant; or,literary entertainer: containing, select essays, in prose and verse, pp. 1-16 (1752)
- Auteur de The Roman history from the foundation of Rome to the Battle of Actium: that is, to the end of the Commonwealth… Translated from the French. (1739)
- Auteur de The method of teaching and studying the belles lettres..Translated from the French…The tenth edition (1773)
- Auteur de DREVNYAYA ISTORIYA OB EGIPTYANAKH, O KARFAGENYANAKH, OB ASSIRIYANAKH, O VAVILONYANAKH, O MIDYANAKH, PERSAKH, O MAKEONYANAKH I O GREKAKH, SOCHINENIYA 2-e IZDANIE. (1749-1753)
- Auteur de Romerska Historien...Öfversatt på Svenska af A.A. 8 Del. (1785-98)
- Auteur de Römische Historie von Erbauung der Stadt Rom bis auf die Schlacht bei Actium. (1739-56)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians..A new edition..illustrated with maps, etc. (1839)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, etc. With notes, and a life of the author, by J. Bell (1828)
- Auteur de The method of teaching and studying the belles lettres…Eleventh edition, corrected (1810)
- Auteur de The Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres… (1742)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians..The thirteenth edition, revised, corrected, and illustrated with a set of maps (1817)
- Auteur de The Ancient History of the Egyptians…Fifteenth edition, revised and corrected, and illustrated with..new plates. To which is prefixed, a life of the author by…R. Lynan (1823)
- Auteur de The ancient history of the Egyptians, Assyrians…Translated from the French of M. Rollin (1838)