Antoine Banier
Encyclopedia
The abbé Antoine Banier (1673–1741), a French clergyman and member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
from 1713, was a historian and translator, whose rationalizing interpretation of Greek mythology
was widely accepted until the mid-nineteenth century.
Banier, born at Dallet in Auvergne
and educated at the Jesuit college at Clermont
, arrived in Paris as a young man and held a place as tutor to the children of président Dumetz.
In his Mythologie et la fable expliqués par l'histoire (1711, recast in dialogue form in 1715, enthusiastically received and often reprinted) he offered a frankly Euhemerist
reading of the origins of Greek mythology
, seen as the gradually deified accounts of actual personages (see Euhemerism
). The Advertisement to the English translation of Banier's Ovid summarised his procedure:
, the worship of false gods.
For his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses he wrote a preface. An edition with Ovid's Latin and an English translation of Banier on facing pages, was published first in 1717, with a preface by Dr Sir Samuel Garth
and handsome illustrations by Bernard Picart
. This was the form in which most eighteenth-century British readers without Latin approached Ovid:
The engravings took up a career independent of the text; they formed part of the extensive visual repertory of prints and illustrated books that was assembled at the Manufactory of Meissen porcelain
, for the use of porcelain painters in the rococo style, and they remained useful as a source of inspiration into the neoclassical nineteenth century, for a copy appears in the 1824 sale catalogue of Benjamin Vulliamy
, the neoclassical clockmaker and bronzefounder to George IV.
In the ambitious Histoire générale des cérémonies, moeurs, et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, in seven volumes (Paris, 1741), for which the engravings had been supplied by the late Bernard Picart
, Banier and his collaborator, the abbé Jean-Baptiste Le Mascrier, aimed to describe all religions of the known world, their origins and doctrines and especially their rites: "It reflects in content and tone the learning, urbanity and self-confidence of the Catholic Church of the Ancien Régime," the producers of a lavish modern facsimile have termed it. In the work, Banier and Le Mascrier were in fact revising and enlarging an earlier Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peoples du monde, which had been compiled by the satirical Huguenot
writer and printer, Jean-Frédéric Bernard (died 1752) and printed from the safety of Amsterdam, in 1723-24. Picart’s illustrations had originally been provided for that work. The ultimate sources for the information lay in Roman Catholic missionary accounts of religious beliefs encountered in Africa, the Americas and Asia. "Banier and Le Mascrier, while retaining much of this material, made considerable alterations to all sections of the work, particularly to those volumes dealing with Judaism and with the Catholic and Protestant churches. As well as correcting factual errors in Bernard’s account and adding much new material, they removed a number of passages which they regarded as satirical in their treatment of the Catholic Church. Instead they inserted a good deal of forthright proclamation of the primacy of Catholicism over all other doctrines."
Banier's Euhemerist and rational explication of myth in his Explication historique des fables satisfied Enlightenment
expectations, before the beginnings of modern analysis of mythology
. "Of the writers who interpreted myth as gilded history, the Abbé Antoine Banier was probably the best-known, the most widely cited, and the least controversial" assert Burton Feldman and Robert D. Richardson. The book was translated into English and German. Diderot and his collaborators employed the abbé Banier's interpretations in the Encyclopédie
, as intellectual common property of the Enlightenment.
Étienne de Jouy (born in 1764) recalled in 1815
By 1887 John Fiske could write, in Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...
from 1713, was a historian and translator, whose rationalizing interpretation of Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
was widely accepted until the mid-nineteenth century.
Banier, born at Dallet in Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
and educated at the Jesuit college at Clermont
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
, arrived in Paris as a young man and held a place as tutor to the children of président Dumetz.
In his Mythologie et la fable expliqués par l'histoire (1711, recast in dialogue form in 1715, enthusiastically received and often reprinted) he offered a frankly Euhemerist
Euhemerus
Euhemerus was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others champion Chios, or Tegea.-Life:...
reading of the origins of Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, seen as the gradually deified accounts of actual personages (see Euhemerism
Euhemerus
Euhemerus was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others champion Chios, or Tegea.-Life:...
). The Advertisement to the English translation of Banier's Ovid summarised his procedure:
For Mr. Banier hath renounced the common Method of treating Fables as mere Allegories, and hath proved, that they have their FOUNDATION in REAL HISTORY, and contain many important Facts. He hath most judiciously stripped them of their poetical Embelishments and Disguises, and reduced them to the plain Historical Truths which the first Poets found them."Banier's Christian context placed these myths firmly in the tradition of idolatry
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
, the worship of false gods.
For his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses he wrote a preface. An edition with Ovid's Latin and an English translation of Banier on facing pages, was published first in 1717, with a preface by Dr Sir Samuel Garth
Samuel Garth
Sir Samuel Garth FRS was an English physician and poet.Garth was born in Bolam in County Durham and matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1676, graduating B.A. in 1679 and...
and handsome illustrations by Bernard Picart
Bernard Picart
Bernard Picart , was a French engraver, son of Etienne Picart, also an engraver. He was born in Paris and died in Amsterdam. He moved to Antwerp in 1696, and then spent a year in Amsterdam before returning to France at the end of 1698...
. This was the form in which most eighteenth-century British readers without Latin approached Ovid:
"It will perhaps at first sight appear Pedantic, that a Book, which by its Magnificence and Price can only be intended for a Court and for Persons of the first Quality, should be half filled with Latin. But how many are there of so elevated a Rank, especially among the English Nobility, who can relish the Beauties of the Original?"
The engravings took up a career independent of the text; they formed part of the extensive visual repertory of prints and illustrated books that was assembled at the Manufactory of Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market...
, for the use of porcelain painters in the rococo style, and they remained useful as a source of inspiration into the neoclassical nineteenth century, for a copy appears in the 1824 sale catalogue of Benjamin Vulliamy
Benjamin Vulliamy
Benjamin Vulliamy , was a clockmaker responsible for building the Regulator Clock, which, between 1780 and 1884, was the official regulator of time in London.- Biography :...
, the neoclassical clockmaker and bronzefounder to George IV.
In the ambitious Histoire générale des cérémonies, moeurs, et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, in seven volumes (Paris, 1741), for which the engravings had been supplied by the late Bernard Picart
Bernard Picart
Bernard Picart , was a French engraver, son of Etienne Picart, also an engraver. He was born in Paris and died in Amsterdam. He moved to Antwerp in 1696, and then spent a year in Amsterdam before returning to France at the end of 1698...
, Banier and his collaborator, the abbé Jean-Baptiste Le Mascrier, aimed to describe all religions of the known world, their origins and doctrines and especially their rites: "It reflects in content and tone the learning, urbanity and self-confidence of the Catholic Church of the Ancien Régime," the producers of a lavish modern facsimile have termed it. In the work, Banier and Le Mascrier were in fact revising and enlarging an earlier Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peoples du monde, which had been compiled by the satirical Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
writer and printer, Jean-Frédéric Bernard (died 1752) and printed from the safety of Amsterdam, in 1723-24. Picart’s illustrations had originally been provided for that work. The ultimate sources for the information lay in Roman Catholic missionary accounts of religious beliefs encountered in Africa, the Americas and Asia. "Banier and Le Mascrier, while retaining much of this material, made considerable alterations to all sections of the work, particularly to those volumes dealing with Judaism and with the Catholic and Protestant churches. As well as correcting factual errors in Bernard’s account and adding much new material, they removed a number of passages which they regarded as satirical in their treatment of the Catholic Church. Instead they inserted a good deal of forthright proclamation of the primacy of Catholicism over all other doctrines."
Banier's Euhemerist and rational explication of myth in his Explication historique des fables satisfied Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
expectations, before the beginnings of modern analysis of mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
. "Of the writers who interpreted myth as gilded history, the Abbé Antoine Banier was probably the best-known, the most widely cited, and the least controversial" assert Burton Feldman and Robert D. Richardson. The book was translated into English and German. Diderot and his collaborators employed the abbé Banier's interpretations in the Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
, as intellectual common property of the Enlightenment.
Étienne de Jouy (born in 1764) recalled in 1815
"I remember that, in my earliest youth, the book I loved the most, after Robinson CrusoeRobinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
, was that of the abbé Banier, where he displays, where he explains these ingenious emblemEmblemAn emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
s by means of which the Ancients gave, so to speak, a soul to all beings, a body to all thoughts"
By 1887 John Fiske could write, in Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology
"What, then, is a myth? The theory of Euhemeros, which was so fashionable a century ago, in the days of the Abbe Banier, has long since been so utterly abandoned that to refute it now is but to slay the slain. The peculiarity of this theory was that it cut away all the extraordinary features of a given myth, wherein dwelt its inmost significance, and to the dull and useless residuum accorded the dignity of primeval history."
Selected publications
- Explication historique des fables, où l'on découvre leur origine et leur conformité avec l'histoire ancienne (2 volumes, 1711)
- Troisième Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas, fait en 1714, par ordre de Louis XIV dans la Turquie, l'Asie, la Sourie, la Palestine, la Haute et la Basse-Égypte (3 volumes, 1719)
- Supplément à l'Homère de Madame Dacier, contenant la vie d'Homère, par Madame Dacier, avec une dissertation sur la durée du siège de Troie par M. l'abbé Banier (1731)
- Ovide : Les Métamorphoses (2 volumes, 1732)
- La Mythologie et les fables expliquées par l'histoire (3 volumes, 1738–1740)
- Histoire générale des cérémonies religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, représentées en 243 figures dessinées de la main de Bernard Picard ; avec des explications historiques et curieuses par M. l'abbé Banier et par M. l'abbé Le Mascrier (1741)