Lough, J. “Mme Geoffrin and the
‘Encyclopédie.’” The Modern
Language Review, vol.
58, no. 2, Modern Humanities
Research Association, 1963,
pp. 219-22. JSTOR,
JSTOR, doi:10.2307/3721252.
In this brief article, Lough inspects
the claim that Madame Geoffrin
assisted the editors of the
Encyclopédie financially upon the
suppression of the work in 1759. He
notes that Geoffrin has been featured
in various exhibitions and journals
throughout the past century and
notices that in the 1951 exhibition run
by the Bibliothèque nationale a quote
from Legras’s Diderot et
l’Encyclopédie claiming that Madame
Geoffrin donated one million écus to
support the encyclopedic cause.
However, as Lough points out,
scholars would be hard pressed to
find and evidence for such a donation.
Any references to the mentioned
occasion cite no sources and provide
no further discussion. Lough, through
his searches of record books
and notaires (ledgers) ultimately
claims that the Encyclopédie was not
at risk for debt (only their profits
were affected, not savings) and that
while Madame Geoffrin did in fact
provide financial support to groups of
writers, she did not do so to save
the Encyclopédie in 1759.
Basic Information
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Language: English
Decade: 1960s
Main Classification: Geoffrin, Finances
Related Sources
*In Progress*
Notes
1. Lough provides quotes from a couple authors. These quotes are kept in their original French (not translated to English).
Updates
9/28/2020: Created page.