Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1807 · Entry 5271

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French Page · Branch 1490 of 4529

YEAR 1807 · Entry 5271

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 2979

28 avril.

L’art mis en œuvre par le naturel. L’art employé à embellir un fonds réel. Car, si l’art ne servoit qu’à dissimuler la nullité... Par exemple, en architecture, l’art consiste à bien placer une fenêtre, et non pas à la faire fausse. Une fenêtre figurée n’appartient pas à l’art proprement dit, mais à la supercherie. Or l’art véritable dédaigne la supercherie. Il ne veut devoir l’illusion qu’à l’habileté qui lui est propre. Le sein de Phryné ne fut point de l’art oratoire.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1807

p. 2980

April 28.

Art put to work by natural disposition. Art employed to beautify a real substance. For if art served only to conceal nullity... In architecture, for example, art consists in placing a window well, not in making it false. A represented window belongs not to art properly so called, but to trickery. Now true art disdains trickery. It wishes to owe illusion only to its own skill. Phryne’s breast was no part of the art of oratory.

T19.Natural disposition renders le naturel as the innate element that puts art to work; naturalness is another possible emphasis. The two opening nominal phrases and the unfinished if clause remain. Nullity is not weakened to an ordinary defect. The false window, trickery, and art’s own skill retain their distinction. Phryne’s breast remains the source’s terse allusion. A related example appears in Quintilian, Institutio oratoria II.15.9, where her physical appearance is distinguished from Hyperides’s pleading; the surrounding discussion separates persuasion from the art of rhetoric. This parallel does not establish Joubert’s particular source, and no narrative is added to his text.

T202.The two opening nominal constructions and the unfinished Si construction at the ellipsis remain. A non-typographic line beneath dissimuler is not treated as printed italic emphasis or a textual correction.

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 II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. 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.