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Les Belles Lettres, founded in 1919, is a French publisher specialising in the publication of ancient texts such as the ''
Collection Budé The ''Collection Budé'', or the ''Collection des Universités de France'', is an editorial collection comprising the Greek and Latin classics up to the middle of the 6th century (before Emperor Justinian). It is published by Les Belles Lettre ...
''. The publishing house, originally named ''Société Les Belles Lettres pour le développement de la culture classique'', was founded by the
Association Guillaume Budé The Association Guillaume Budé, named after the 16th century humanist Guillaume Budé, is a French cultural and learned society dedicated to the promotion of humanities. The current president of the society is the Hellenist Jacques Jouanna. The ...
, with the initial goal of publishing
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
classics.


History


Foundation

According to the usual story, the history of ''Belles Lettres'' began in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
when the
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
Joseph Vendryes Joseph Vendryes or Vendryès (; 13 January 1875 – 30 January 1960) was a French Celtic linguist. After studying with Antoine Meillet, he was chairman of Celtic languages and literature at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. He founded the ...
wanted a
critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...
of
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
to include in his field pack, but could find only German editions. At the end of the war, the
Association Guillaume Budé The Association Guillaume Budé, named after the 16th century humanist Guillaume Budé, is a French cultural and learned society dedicated to the promotion of humanities. The current president of the society is the Hellenist Jacques Jouanna. The ...
was created, named for the 16th-century French
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
. The association began with the mission of increasing the availability of the great classics of Greek and Latin culture and decided to publish "a comprehensive collection of Greek and Latin authors, othtexts and translations". However, the association did not have the necessary funds. The ''société Les Belles Lettres pour le développement de la culture classique'' was therefore founded as its publishing company; this has since become the ''société d’édition Les Belles Lettres''. Capital was raised from "French industrialist friends of the Classics", with a total of 300 shareholders. The first president was the
Hellenist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...
Paul Mazon Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo P ...
, a translator of Homer. The company had its offices at 157
Boulevard Saint-Germain The Boulevard Saint-Germain () is a major street in Paris on the Rive Gauche of the Seine. It curves in a 3.5-kilometre (2.1 miles) arc from the Pont de Sully in the east (the bridge at the edge of Île Saint-Louis) to the Pont de la Concord ...
in Paris. After Jean Malye became president of the Belles Lettres, he moved its headquarters to 95
Boulevard Raspail The Boulevard Raspail () is a boulevard of Paris, in France. Its orientation is north–south, and joins boulevard Saint-Germain with place Denfert-Rochereau whilst traversing 7th, 6th and 14th arrondissements. The boulevard intersects maj ...
, where they remain. The company currently publishes approximately 100 titles annually.


Distribution company

In 2004, Les Belles Lettres founded a SAS called Belles Lettres Diffusion Distribution (BLDD), through which it distributes books by other publishers.


Fire

On 29 May 2002, a fire destroyed the Belles Lettres warehouse in
Gasny Gasny () is a commune in the Eure department in northern France. Population Personalities * Georges Baptiste François Allix (1808-1881), military engineer in the French Navy. See also *Communes of the Eure department The following is a ...
(
Eure Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.Hippias Minor ''Hippias Minor'' (), or ''On Lying'', is thought to be one of Plato's early works. Socrates matches wits with an arrogant polymath, who is also a smug literary critic. Hippias believes that Homer can be taken at face value, and he also thinks t ...
'' of
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, translated by Maurice Croiset, with a yellow cover and the logo of an
aryballos An aryballos ( Greek: ἀρύβαλλος; plural aryballoi) was a small spherical or globular flask with a narrow neck used in Ancient Greece."aryballos" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn ...
in the form of an owl, representing Athena's owl, and shortly afterwards in the Latin series, the ''
De rerum natura (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC Didacticism, didactic poem by the Roman Republic, Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius () with the goal of explaining Epicureanism, Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, writte ...
'' of
Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ;  – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...
, translated by Alfred Ernout, with a red cover and the logo of the
Capitoline Wolf The Capitoline Wolf (Italian language, Italian: ''Lupa Capitolina'') is a bronze sculpture depicting a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome. The sculpture shows a She-wolf (Roman mythology), she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders ...
. The one hundredth book was published in 1931. Fulfilling Vendryes' original wish, the Collection des universités de France publishes scholarly editions in a pocket-sized format. The original (with
critical apparatus A critical apparatus () in textual criticism of primary source material, is an organized system of notations to represent, in a single text, the complex history of that text in a concise form useful to diligent readers and scholars. The apparatu ...
) and the French (with footnotes) are on facing pages, right and left respectively. There is a substantial introduction. The text is intended to be based on the oldest version that can be reconstructed from the surviving manuscripts, for which microfilms are used, and the translation "above all to reproduce the movement, color, the tone of the text". Editing and translation are assigned to one or more scholars who are specialists in the author concerned and are subject to careful verification by a third expert. A statement of responsibility appears on the reverse of the title page: "In accordance with the statutes of the ''Association Guillaume Budé'', this volume has been submitted for approval by the technical commission, which has instructed
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to revise it and oversee its correction in collaboration with
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" The volumes are paperbacks, still in the original size, printed on cream wove manufactured especially for the publisher.C.U.F. Collection Budé, Les Belles Lettres They were originally sewn but since 1976 have been bound and cropped. , the two series include more than 800 volumes (a few more Greek than Latin). The current goal of the collection is "to publish everything written in Greek and Latin before the reign of the Emperor Justinian (in the 6th century)". However, Christian writers, although originally fully within the intended range of publications, editorial beginning, are largely left to the ''Sources chrétiennes'' collection of Éditions du Cerf. Only the literary writings of the
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...
, such as the '' Confessions'' of
Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...
, have been or will be published in the Collection des universités de France. Since 2006, some of the Latin and Greek works have been reprinted without the critical apparatus in the series ''Classiques en poche'' (pocket classics) headed by Hélène Monsacré, with updated translations and where applicable revised texts, for example Oliver Sers' translation of
Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Britannica.com.
(; ; ; s ...
' ''
Satyricon The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius in the late 1st century AD, though the manuscript tradition identifi ...
''.Pétrone (Petronius), ''Satiricon'', ed. and tr. Olivier Sers, Classiques de poche 44, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2001, .


Les Belles Lettres English ( Classical Wisdom Weekly)

In 2012, Les Belles Lettres English was established in order to create an English newsletter and website called Classical Wisdom Weekly. The website launched on 6 November 2012 and is dedicated to promoting and teaching Ancient Greek and Latin literature. The tagline for Classical Wisdom Weekly is "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Minds".


Other collections

There are also bilingual collections on the history of France, classic medieval texts and classics of English literature (including a bilingual edition of the complete works of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
) and Chinese Literature. In addition, the company publishes older French authors such as
François de Malherbe François de Malherbe (, 1555 – 16 October 1628) was a French poet, critic, and translator. Life He was born in Le Locheur (near Caen, Normandie), to a family of standing, although the family's pedigree did not satisfy the heralds in terms o ...
. * ''Confluents psychanalytiques'', launched in 1976. * ''Realia'', headed by Jean-Noël Robert and launched in 1983, includes his ''Les Plaisirs à Rome''. * ''Bibliothèque chinoise'' (漢文法譯書庫), headed by
Anne Cheng Anne Cheng (; born 11 July 1955) is a French Sinologist who teaches at the Collège de France and specializes in Chinese history and the history of Chinese philosophy. Pablo Ariel Blitstein, the author of "A new debate about alterity," describe ...
, Marc Kalinowski and Stephane Feuillas, and launched in 2010 ; '' * ''Histoire'' features works by
French historians This is a list of French historians limited to those with a biographical entry in either English or French Wikipedia. Other major French chroniclers, annalists, philosophers, or other writers are included if they have important historical output. ...
such as
Pierre Vidal-Naquet Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (; 23 July 193029 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1969. Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but was als ...
and numerous translations of foreign works. * ''Science et Humanisme'' includes editions and translations of scientific texts of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
and the
Age of Reason 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 empiric ...
, by authors including
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
,
Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...
, Campanella and Sir
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
. * ''La Roue à livres'' consists of translations of works by ancient and Renaissance authors, but without the original text. * ''L’âne d’or'' features works from the history of ideas, in particular
Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
,
Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...
, astronomy, and the history of medicine. * ''Classiques du Nord'', headed by
Régis Boyer Régis Boyer (25 June 1932 – 16 June 2017) was a French literary scholar, historian and translator, specialised on Nordic literature and the Viking Age. Biography Régis Boyer was born in Reims on 25 June 1932. At age 20 he earned a degree in lit ...
, publishes translations of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic literature. * ''Guides Belles Lettres des civilisations'' covers periods and places including
pre-Columbian America In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European c ...
,
Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9 ...
Iceland, and
Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
India. * ''Laissez faire'', headed by François Guillaumat, and Bibliothèque classique de la liberté, headed by Alain Laurent, publish liberal authors such as Frederic Bastiat,
Yves Guyot Yves Guyot (6 September 184322 February 1928) was a French politician and economist. Biography He was born at Dinan. Educated at Rennes, he took up the profession of journalism, coming to Paris in 1867. He was for a short period editor-in-chief of ...
and
Benjamin Constant Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (25 October 1767 – 8 December 1830), or simply Benjamin Constant, was a Swiss and French political thinker, activist and writer on political theory and religion. A committed republican from 1795, Constant ...
. Les Belles Lettres has also published outside its collections bilingual critical editions of the complete works of
Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...
and of
Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...
, and less known writers including
Jean-Edern Hallier Jean-Edern Hallier (1 March 193612 January 1997) was a French writer, critic and editor. After his exclusion from the literary review '' Tel Quel'', which he co-founded with Philippe Sollers, Hallier went on to publish novels and satirical pam ...
,
Philippe Leotard Philippe is a masculine given name, cognate to Philip, and sometimes also a surname. The name may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince ...
and
Francis Lalanne Francis Lalanne (born Francis-José Lalanne on 8 August 1958 in Bayonne) is a French-Uruguayan singer, songwriter and poet. He is the brother of composer Jean-Félix Lalanne and film director René Manzor. Free Art He opposed the HADOPI law< ...
.


References


External links


''Classical Wisdom Weekly''
Les Belles Lettres English Newsletter {{Authority control Publishing companies of France