Lemaire, Panckoucke, Nisard : trois collections d’auteurs latins sous la Restauration et la monarchie de Juillet

This work is devoted to the three main collections of Latin authors published in France under the Second Restoration and the July Monarchy: the “Bibliotheca classica Latina”, edited by the Latin scholar and dean of the Sorbonne Nicolas-Éloi Lemaire; the “Bibliothèque latine-française”, published by the enterprising bookseller Charles-Louis-Fleury Panckoucke (son of the publisher of the Encyclopédie méthodique); and the “Collection des auteurs latins”, edited by the literary critic and professor Désiré Nisard, fierce defender of classicism and outspoken critic of romanticism. Published between 1819 and 1832, the “Bibliotheca classica Latina”, heavily supported by public funds, attempted to revive the tradition of variorum editions; the “Bibliothèque latine-française”, which was released in two sets (1825–1838 then 1842–1848), displayed a French translation opposite the Latin text in elegant octavo volumes to adorn bourgeois libraries; the “Collection des auteurs latins” (1837–1850) also included French translations, but primarily targeted the less affluent audience of professors and their students, which is reflected in its economical format and typography. To date, none of these three collections has been the subject of a comprehensive study, or even a brief article, despite the influence they have held in France for decades, where they have long formed a kind of vulgate. A comparative examination of the three collections with regard to the choice of authors, the preparation of the text, and the development of the translations and commentary allows us to understand the distinctive features of each work, which sometimes arose from a desire to stand apart from the other two.