From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordStone and marble exemplify apparent solidity, transformed matter, and the resistance an artist must work with.
- In JoubertThe speculative account of materials calls stone dried paste and allows marble to become cloud through repeated evaporation.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves dried paste, cloud, and the plural solidities.
- A place to beginStone and marble are placed in a speculative series of material transformations.
- English renderings
- stone; marble
Meaning
Stone and marble exemplify apparent solidity, transformed matter, and the resistance an artist must work with. They are not simply stable opposites to air and fluid.
Use in the book
The speculative account of materials calls stone dried paste and allows marble to become cloud through repeated evaporation. It treats solidity as a state within possible transformations. The artistic account instead emphasizes a worker’s difficulty: marble is too hard to obey the hand directly. Yet buildings made from it may appear airy, while mere forms can suggest greater solidity than piled rocks. Material and artistic effect therefore need not share the same apparent weight or consistency.
Places to read
- I, p. 236–237, entry 7, ¶1Stone and marble are placed in a speculative series of material transformations.
- II, p. 757, entry 10, ¶1Marble’s hardness resists the sculptor’s hand.
- II, p. 484, entry 13, ¶1Heavy material can produce airy appearance and forms can suggest solidity.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves dried paste, cloud, and the plural solidities. These are Joubert’s formulations, not silently corrected accounts of geology or phase changes. Proper names containing Pierre were excluded from the material headword evidence.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 236, 237; II, pp. 484, 757.