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 1808 · Entry 5740

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English Page · Branch 1959 of 4529

YEAR 1808 · Entry 5740

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 3917

(P. M.-). Oui, trop peu de mots et un tissu de langage trop serré, mais aussi beaucoup de sens. Lorsque l’attention l’a percé, on trouve sous ce pointillé de la largeur etc.

De grandes choses en petit, un vaste espace en raccourci. (Le raccourci tend à être désagréable, mais il a de l’utilité.)

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1808

p. 3918

(P. M.-). Yes, too few words and a fabric of language too tightly woven, but also much meaning. When attention has pierced it, one finds breadth beneath this stippling etc.

Great things in miniature, a vast space foreshortened. (Foreshortening tends to be disagreeable, but it is useful.)

T278.The opaque initials and punctuation (P. M.-). remain unexpanded. Fabric, piercing, stippling, and breadth retain the succession of textile and visual images. Much meaning renders beaucoup de sens without inserting a specific interpretation. The period practice of pointiller involved producing work with small points; no particular medium or later Pointillist movement is identified.

T639.The exact abbreviation (P. M.-). is confirmed in the facsimile and is not expanded. Two physical paragraphs remain. The second is a nominal formulation followed by a separate parenthesis; the first has no added comma before etc.

T279.The nominal formulation remains a separate paragraph within the entry. Foreshortened and foreshortening preserve the visual figure in raccourci while leaving its application to compressed expression available. The parenthesis retains both the disagreeable tendency and the usefulness. The period dictionary also records en raccourci for abridgment, alongside its use for perspective in painting.

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.