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 1819 · Entry 8081

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Facing Pages · Branch 4300 of 4529

YEAR 1819 · Entry 8081

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 8599

Le style de Tacite, quoique moins beau (moins riche en couleurs agréables et en tournures variées, etc.) est pourtant plus parfait peut-être que celui de Cicéron même. Car tous les mots en sont soignés et ont leur poids, leur mesure et leur nombre exact. Or, c’est là la perfection. Car la perfection suprême réside dans un ensemble et dans des élémens parfaits.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1819

p. 8600

Tacitus’s style, though less beautiful (less rich in pleasing colors and varied turns of phrase, etc.), is nevertheless perhaps more perfect than even Cicero’s. For all its words are carefully tended and have their weight, their measure and their exact number. Now, that is perfection. For supreme perfection resides in a perfect whole and perfect elements.

T110.The concession, full parenthesis, perhaps and even remain. The three repeated possessives and repeated perfection remain. Exact attaches narrowly to number as in the visible French. Number retains the rhetorical-harmony sense attested in the complete 1798 Académie entry, without excluding numerical proportion. French prints parfaits only after literal élémens. Repeating perfect with both whole and elements is a contextual shared-attachment reading; the narrower attachment to elements alone remains grammatically possible. No new textual comparison is claimed.

T216.The undated paragraph retains its full parenthesis, pourtant/peut-être/même, repeated possessives and exact after nombre. Élémens retains its historical ending; peut-/être and perfec-/tion are complete wraps. The final adjective occurs only after élémens; its grammatical attachment is not expanded in French.

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.