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 1814 · Entry 7075

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Facing Pages · Branch 3294 of 4529

YEAR 1814 · Entry 7075

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6587

Lundi 1ᵉʳ août.

Zumbo (sculpteur sicilien) aimoit à modeler (en cire) l’anatomie humaine : celle des chairs, celle des muscles et celle même de la peau. (Vu aujourd’hui ses sculptures au Palais Royal n° 107.)

On cite de Jean Zumbo la corruzione ou l’homme mourant et l’homme mort. Pigal fut le Zumbo français par son goût naturel pour le même genre de sujets et d’expressions.

Zumbo travailla à Marseille en 1701.

Zumbo voulut peindre la joye et la douleur dans tous leurs degrés et avec toutes leurs expressions dans les tableaux de la nativité et de la descente de croix, les seuls qu’on connoisse de lui. (Vid. sa figure de Joseph d’Arimathie.)

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814

p. 6588

Monday, August 1.

Zumbo (a Sicilian sculptor) liked to model (in wax) human anatomy: that of the flesh, that of the muscles and even that of the skin. (Saw his sculptures today at the Palais Royal, no. 107.)

Among Jean Zumbo’s works, one cites corruption, or the dying man and the dead man. Pigal was the French Zumbo through his natural taste for the same kind of subjects and expressions.

Zumbo worked in Marseille in 1701.

Zumbo wished to paint joy and sorrow in all their degrees and with all their expressions in the pictures of the nativity and the descent from the cross, the only ones of his that are known. (See his figure of Joseph of Arimathea.)

T273.The three parenthetical passages, three anatomical relations, even and the subjectless Saw remain. The numbered location and today are not turned into an invented museum or historical date.

T549.All four paragraphs remain under the complete weekday and date, whose er is visibly raised. The two parenthetic material/observation phrases in paragraph 1 remain distinct; n° 107 is an address-like body reference, not a date. The three celle clauses and même remain. Only corruzione in paragraph 2 is italic; the preceding article and the alternative French wording are roman. Jean Zumbo and Pigal are literal and unexpanded. The historical year 1701 stays in the separate third paragraph. Paragraph 4 keeps joye, all repeated degrees/expressions, lower-case nativité and descente de croix, connoisse, and the parenthetic Vid. reference. No attribution or biographical correction is inferred.

T274.Corruption freshly renders the italic Italian corruzione; only its corresponding word receives that emphasis. Jean and Pigal retain the collated printed name forms rather than silently substituting biographical corrections. The second comparison remains Joubert’s attribution. English introduces among the works as the ordinary idiomatic completion of on cite de, without naming additional works; the added comma before or articulates the alternative.

T275.This remains a separate paragraph within the August unit. The year 1701 is a historical assertion in Joubert’s text, not its composition date; no external biographical verification is claimed.

T276.The two all formulations, joy/sorrow pair and only restriction remain. The only ones of his that are known gives les seuls qu’on connoisse de lui with pictures as its immediate antecedent. It neither attributes the knowing to Zumbo himself nor broadens the claim to every kind of work he made. See renders roman Vid. without an invented internal target. No surviving work has been independently identified.

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.