Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
Facing Pages · Branch 1904 of 3781
[On Locke] · Entry 1904
French
p. 3807[…]9 septembre.
Un quarré sur des tours, au lieu de girouettes : mathématiques prennent la place des beaux-arts. (d’après nature, à Montignac.)
Figures régulières et nivelantes, au lieu des belles et agrandissantes.
Une girouette avec ses ornemens n’offre point une figure assignable en géométrie. La géométrie n’admet et ne peut admettre que les figures qui servent à déterminer des mesures.
(L’une agrandit, l’autre mesure.)
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On Locke]
p. 3808September […]9.
A square on towers, in place of weather vanes: mathematics takes the place of the fine arts. (from nature, at Montignac.)
Regular and leveling figures, in place of beautiful and enlarging ones.
A weather vane with its ornaments offers no figure that can be specified in geometry. Geometry admits, and can admit, only figures that serve to determine measures.
(The one enlarges, the other measures.)
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On Locke] · Entry 1904
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.