Fortunato Felice
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Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (24 August 1723 – 13 February 1789), 2nd Comte de Panzutti, also known as ''Fortuné-Barthélemy de Félice'' and ''Francesco Placido Bartolomeo De Felice'', was an Italian
nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
, a famed author, philosopher, scientist, and is said to have been one of the most important publishers of the 18th century. He is considered a pioneer of education in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, and a formative contributor to the
European Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...
.


Life

Fortunato Bartolomeo de Félice was born in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
to a
Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and High ...
family, as the eldest of six children, on 24 August 1723. He was confirmed in 1733 in the parish of St. Celso e Giuliano. At the age of 12, he studied at Rome and Naples under the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
, taught by the Franciscan Fortunato da Brescia. On 28 May 1746, he was ordained by papal dispensation, whilst also teaching philosophy. Through his studies at the monastery of San Francesco in Ripa, he discovered a love of physics, becoming friends with Celestino Galiani. In 1753, Galiani appointed de Félice chair of Ancient and Modern Geography, and the chair of experimental physics and mathematics at Naples University. There he became friends with the Prince Raimondo di Sangro who aided him in his translation of the physicist
John Arbuthnot John Arbuthnot FRS (''baptised'' 29 April 1667 – 27 February 1735), often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership ...
's works from Latin. After rescuing the imprisoned Countess Panzutti,Donato
Rewriting Heresy in the Encyclopedie d'Yverdon 1770–1780
Félice and his new wife Agnese fled to
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
, with the help of his friend
Albrecht von Haller Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes r ...
, due to religious persecution from the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in Rome. He then converted to
Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
. In 1758, he founded with :de:Vincenz Bernhard Tscharner the Typographic Society of Bern, which was an Italian-speaking ( l'Estratto de la europea letterature until 1762) and a Latin (, to 1766) literary and scientific journal. In 1762, after the death of the Countess Panzutti due to influenza at Tscharner's residence, Château Lansitz, de Felice moved to Yverdon where he founded an educational institute for young people from all over Europe, and a printing press. The latter quickly developed into one of the most distinguished in Switzerland, producing the Yverdon Encyclopedia, for which Panzutti is now famous. In 1769 he became a citizen of Yverdon and thereby became Swiss. He was married four times and had 13 children: in 1756 to Countess Agnese Arcuato, Countessa di Panzutti (1720–1759) (whereby his title was received jure uxoris, so Arcuato's previous husband was recorded as the first Count Panzutti), in 1759 to Susanne de Wavre Neuchâtel (1737–1769), in 1769 to Louise Marie Perrelet (died 1774), and in 1774 to Jeanne Salomé Sinet. He died in
Yverdon-les-Bains Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Ancient Rome, Roman era) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Jura-North Vaudois District, Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It ...
.


Work

De Felice is considered a significant contributor to education in Switzerland. As editor and translator of Burlamaqui's ''Principes du Droit Naturel'', his name became synonymous with
natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...
throughout Europe. His most important work is the '' Encyclopédie d'Yverdon'', which he headed as editor and for which he wrote more than 800 articles. From 1770 to 1780 he published 58 volumes, and as the ''
Encyclopédie , better known as ''Encyclopédie'' (), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis ...
'' of Paris had a new version of the Protestant perspective. His other work consists of half a dozen educational, philosophical and scientific books. He translated the works of
René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...
,
d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...
, Maupertuis and Newton into Italian. In de Felice's famous printing house, as well as the Encyclopedia, he translated into French works of Elie Bertrand,
Charles Bonnet Charles Bonnet (; 13 March 1720 – 20 May 1793) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan natural history, naturalist and philosophical methodology, philosophical writer. He is responsible for coining the term ''phyllotaxis'' to describe the arrangement ...
,
Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (; 24 June or 13 July 1694 – 3 April 1748) was a Genevan legal and political theorist who popularised a number of ideas propounded by other thinkers. Life Born in Geneva, Republic of Geneva, into a Calvinist family (des ...
,
Albrecht von Haller Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes r ...
, Gabriel Seigneux de Correvon,
Samuel-Auguste Tissot Samuel Auguste André David Tissot (; 20 March 1728 – 13 June 1797) was a notable 18th-century Swiss people, Swiss physician. Life A well-reputed Calvinist Protestant neurologist, physician, professor and Vatican adviser, Tissot practiced in t ...
,
Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( ; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenism (neoclassicism), Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Ancient Greek art, Greek, Helleni ...
and other
Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
authors. The two magazine projects of the Typographic Society Bern aimed at an international exchange of knowledge. This allowed Tscharner and de Felice to create a correspondent network all over Europe.


Portrait

An 18th-century depiction of de Félice is held by the Achenbach Foundation in the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. A Latin and 18th-century French inscription by one of his sons, Carolus de Félice reads:
Source:Search
famsf.org
He also had a
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...
commissioned, done by an unknown artist. The current holder of the portrait, the de Felice Duchi Estate, puts this painting as the best representation of de Felice in existence.


Works

* Etrennes aux désœuvrés ou Lettre d'Quaker à ses frères et à un grand docteur. 1766th (In this work Felice railed against the so-called philosophers and Voltaire ) * Mémoires de la Société oeconomique de Berne (24 volumes, 1763–72) * Essay manière la plus sûre d'un système de police établir of grains. Yverdon 1772nd * Dictionnaire géographique, historique et politique de la Suisse. 2 vols. Neuchâtel 1775th * Dictionnaire de justice naturelle et civile. 1778th 13 volumes * Tableau philosophique de la religion Chrétienne, considérée dans son ensemble dans sa morale et dans ses consolations. Yverdon 1779th * Eléments de la police générale d'un Etat. Yverdon 1781st * Le développement de la raison . Oeuvres posthumous. Yverdon 1789th * Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire universel raisonné of connaissances humaines. 42 volumes and 6 supplementary volumes. Yverdon 1770–1776. Reissue: Fischer Verlag, Erlangen 1993, . (38,000 pages on 257 microfiches.)


Further reading


Full Biography and works of Fortunato De Felice

De Felice Estate Website


Bibliography

* ''Encyclopédie, ou, Dictionnaire universel raisonné des connoissances humaines'' (Yverdon, Switzerland. 42 volumes, 6 volumes ''Supplement'', and 10 volumes of plates, 1770–1780), with the assistance of
Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
,
Charles François Dupuis Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
,
Jérôme Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer. He is known for having estimated a precise value of the astronomical unit (the distance from the Earth to the Sun) using measu ...
,
Albrecht von Haller Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes r ...
, et al. * ''Mémoires de la Société oeconomique de Berne'' (24 volumes, 1763–72) * ''Le Bacha de Bude'' (1765) * ''De Newtonian Attractione, adversus Hambergen'' (1757) * ''Quadro filosofico della religione cristiana'' (1757) * ''Sul modo di formare la mente ed il cuore dei fanciuli'' (1763) * ''Principii del diritto della natura a delle genti'' (1769) * ''Lezioni di logica'' (1770) * ''Elementi del governo interiore di uno stato'' (1781)Biografia
alessandrodefelice.it


References


External links


Link to the print in the Achenbach Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felice, Fortunato 1723 births 1789 deaths Italian lexicographers Italian printers 18th-century Italian Jesuits Writers from Rome 18th-century Italian writers 18th-century Italian male writers 18th-century Italian scientists Italian Protestants
Italian Historians Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
Swiss Writers Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
Swiss Historians Former Jesuits Converts to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism 18th-century lexicographers