DENIS DOMINIQUE CARDONNE

Denis Dominique Cardonne (1721-1783) was a French orientalist and translator. From the age of nine Cardonne stayed in Constantinople for a period of twenty years. After his return to France he became secretary-interpreter of the king and censor and inspector of the Royal Library. From 1750 he held the chair for Turkish and Persian at the college Royal. His publications include Histoire de l ‘Afrique et de l’Espagne sous la domination des Arabes (3 vols.; 1765); Mélanges de literature orientale, traduits de différens manuscrits turcs, arabes et persans de la Bibliothèque du Roi, par M. Cardonne (2 vols.; 1770); Contes et fables indiennes de Bidpaï et de Lokman. Traduites d’Ali Tchelebi-ben-Saleh, auteur turc. Ouvrage commence par feu M. Galland, continue et fini par M. Cardonne (3 vols.; 1778); and Extraits des manuscrits arabes dans lesquels il est parlé des évènemens historiques relatifs au règne de saint Louis, traduits par M. Cardonne (1817)

The fragments:

The collection Mélanges de literature orientale (1770) contains 94 short pieces and two longer texts, taken from manuscripts preserved in the Bibliothèque Royale, following the example of Pétis de la Croix and Comte de Caylus. Most of the pieces are anecdotes and tales, some of them well-known from the Arabic adab tradition (the canonical genre of anecdotal collections in books of knowledge for cultivated persons), others taken from Turkish and Persian sources. Among the sources mentioned are Ibn Arabshah, an Arabic author of adab, who had lived for some time in Central Asia (1389-1450), al-Suyuti (1445-1505), also a writer of adab, and the Persian poet Sadi (1210-1291). Other sources are, according to Cardonne’s spelling, Adjaib mouaser, Biharistan Molladjami, Enis el Arifin Pirmahmud, Megmoua hikaïat, Latifenamé, Halbet alkumeit, Fakehatel Khoulefa, and the Catalogue des manuscrits arabes de la bibliothèque de l’Escorial (over het leven van Ibn Sina/ Avicenna). A longer piece is by the Ottoman poet Nebi, who ‘was the most popular poet at the end of the previous century’ (that is, the 17th century): an instruction to his son about correct behaviour, piety and decency. The collection reflects the 18th century interest in Oriental literature and the function of Constantinople as a bridge between Eastern literatures and Europe, providing material for translation from the Turkish, Persian and Arabic (perhaps Central-Asian) traditions. The author stresses the need to learn more about the Eastern peoples, who ‘we think are barbarians’, but who have a lot of admirable and virtuous properties. He remarks that he has skipped the stories which are already known from the Thousand and one nights, and which, apparently, were also part of other collections.

‘Mélanges de literature orientale, traduits de différens manuscrits turcs, arabes et persans de la Bibliothèque du Roi, par M. Cardonne (2 vols.) - Delalain, Paris 1772, pp. 1-61. (Gallica)