Talk:Lettres provinciales

This much could go as a subsection at Blaise Pascal without sinking the ship, one might imagine. --Wetman 09:27, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• There is more coming, this much is already in Blaise Pascal, I was just creating most of the red links from the main article that were supposed to have pages. Christopher Parham (talk) 17:19, 2005 Jun 18 (UTC)

Date of English translation

"They were first translated ... and then in many other languages, including English in 1657 (Les Provinciales, or the Mystery of Jesuitisme, discovered in certain letters written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne between the jansenists and the molinists, London, Royston, 1657) by the Anglican theologian Henry Hammond, ..."

The 'English Short Title Catalogue' database maintained by the British Library, accessible via their website, and considered authoritative for English printing, and printing in English, prior to 1800 records no translator for the edition of the English translation of 1657 (reprinted with substantial additions in 1658); the translator is thought to be unknown see Geoffrey Keynes, ‘John Evelyn: A Study in Bibliophily with a Bibliography of his Writings’ Oxford, 1968, (2nd. ed.) p 124. CurleyHair (talk) 22:01, 28 January 2008 (UTC) CurleyHair

Hi, thanks for this info. However, as sourced in the article, Henry Hammond appears to be the translator (see Louis Cognet's introduction (in French) to the Provinciales, of 1965; re-published in Sellier's edition, Classique Garnier 1991-1992 or Librairie Générale Française, Paris, 2004 (Pochotèque, p. 218 in this case)). Cognet says that Henry Hammond had work on exemplaries of the original edition, and had the text established by a professional translator, John Davies (Cognet quotes here Paule Jansen, De Blaise Pascal à Henry Hammond: "Les Provinciales" en Angleterre", Paris, 1954). This translation was re-published in 1658 and completed in 1659). The info according to which "the translator is thought to be unknown" probably arise from the fact that the translation was most probably not signed, and thus anonymous. Spirals31 (talk)

Writing is awkward

The writing is not good. It needs a thorough cleanup and edit. One example among many: Pascal is said to have had to "enter clandestinely". Enter what? We aren't told. Some sentences read more like a translation out another language than sentences composed directly in English. It is sometimes needlessly prolix (the writer several times multiplies his verbs and uses the passive voice, when a single, active verb would work better), and somewhat repetitive. Theonemacduff (talk) 21:57, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Crap

"in 1660 Louis XIV banned the book and ordered it shredded and burned." Hahaha. Bullshit. It never happened. Source, delete or, even better, leave as a fine example of Pipedia scholarship. 84.73.134.206 (talk) 18:58, 9 March 2017 (UTC)