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 1815 · Entry 7334

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Facing Pages · Branch 3553 of 4529

YEAR 1815 · Entry 7334

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 7105

15 mars.

Aux quatre facultés, la mémoire (qui en est comme le secrétaire, le greffier ou le rédacteur.) Roulé longtemps dans la mémoire. Là se fait l’arrondissement et s’acquiert enfin le poli et le fini et le lustré; disons presque le calandré.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1815

p. 7106

March 15.

To the four faculties, memory (which is like their secretary, their clerk or their writer). Rolled for a long time in memory. There the rounding takes place, and at last the polish and the finish and the luster are acquired; let us almost say, the calendered finish.

T158.The opening addition remains a fragment rather than an invented imperative. All three office roles, the subjectless Rolled and long duration remain. Rounding, polish, finish, luster and the qualified calendered image stay distinct. Calendered finish renders substantivized calandré with an ordinary English noun; the complete 1798 Académie Calandrer and Calandre entries support the cloth-pressing and lustering image, without selecting a particular machine. English are acquired uses ordinary plural agreement where the source has singular s’acquiert before its coordinated nouns. The repeated and now retains all three coordinated finishing terms. The source period sits inside its closing parenthesis; English places the sentence period outside the parenthesis. No source punctuation is changed.

T523.The complete 15 is retained. In the French source, the parenthesis includes a period before its closing mark. The initial nominal formulation, secretary/clerk/editor alternatives, subjectless Roulé phrase, repeated mémoire, coordinated singular predicates and triple et sequence remain. The lus-/tré wrap is complete: tr and accented é remain at the ordinary left column. The other left openings le/se retain complete qualified foreground forms without additional gaps. Calandré has its printed final acute accent; presque remains. All text is roman.

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.