18 mai 2021 - 99/ Charles de Montesquieu: The Temple of Gnide (1725 ... )

Description:

Inspired by Howard S. Becker’s ‘Art Worlds’ (1), this new series of posts will explore the network of authors, publishers, editors and artists of illustrated publications, frequently the origin for success of the book. The first example is a novel entitled ‘Le Temple de Gnide’, surprisingly written by Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755), better known as Montesquieu, political scientist most famous for his ‘L’Esprit des Lois’ with the important principle of the separation of powers in democracies (2).

The popularity of ‘Le Temple de Gnide’ is attested by the many editions from 1748 to 1954. Fig.1 visualizes: A Timeline of Publishers (below the time-axis without illustrations, above with number of illustrations; B Network of Publishers and their DESIGNERS or DESIGNERS/ENGRAVERS; C Network of DESIGNERS and their ENGRAVERS