Cicero in France at the dawn of the Enlightenment

Abstract

In eighteenth-century France, the figure of Cicero has most often been studied in relation to the Enlightenment. The article examines how this golden age of Ciceronian reception began in the opening decades of the century – referred to here as the "early eighteenth century" – prior to the Enlightenment proper. During this period, which was deeply marked by Cicero's prominence in the school curriculum, a massive wave of translations led to the widespread circulation of his works. No longer the Cicero of the Classical Age, yet not quite the Cicero of Voltaire, he became an author for everyone, popularized both through a vast number of publications and on the theatrical stage. This "popularity" was accompanied by new critical standards that fundamentally reshaped how Cicero was approached. This phenomenon involved a revival of interest in his life as well as the emergence of the intellectual and philosophical currents that would pave the way for the Cicero of the Enlightenment.