On the Nugent translation of l’Esprit des lois

• Autores: Philip Stewart
• Localización: History of political thought, ISSN 0143-781X, Vol. 39, Nº 1, 2018, págs. 83-106
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Thomas Nugent's 1750 translation of L'Esprit des lois is still the standard for many scholars, though they often express reservations. A sampling of a handful of chapters reveals some clear anomalies, some of which have nevertheless been perpetuated by more recent translators. Nugent's title, although it seems straightforward, is itself dubious for several reasons. His choices for some key terms such as ressort can certainly be questioned, and there are some outright mistakes, which is not too surprising in itself. His most egregious distortions doubtless lie in freely expanded or contracted versions of passages that Montesquieu had written with some care.