RUFUS J.J., Sauvage Européen, &
[MAUBERT de GOUVEST (J.H.)].
Lettres Cherakeesiennes mises en Francois de la Traduction Italienne.
LETTERS BY "A NOBLE SAVAGE" WITH A FALSE IMPRINT
RUFUS J.J., Sauvage Européen, &
[MAUBERT de GOUVEST (J.H.)].
Lettres Cherakeesiennes mises en Francois de la Traduction Italienne.
Jean-Henri Maubert de Gouvest (1721-1767) was a French Capuchin friar, adventurer, artillery officer and man of letters. Having fled his holy order for the first time, he enlisted in the army of Saxony, and then after a move to England, he taught history to Lord Bolingbroke and curried favour in circles of influence in the British court. He was particularly astute on matters of international diplomacy, and he wrote extensively on this theme, often employing satirical elements.
This work is essentially a new enlarged edition of his Lettres Iroquoises, first published in 1752, containing thirty-six of the forty-three letters included in the original. The pseudonymous J.J. Rufus “Sauvage Européen” is purported in this edition to be a member of the Cherokee rather than Iroquois Nation, travelling through France and sending home to America his impressions of European society. Very much in the Rousseauian convention of the “noble savage”, the conceit acts as a vehicle for the author’s polemics.
Though the title suggests this is a translation from the Italian, no such Italian edition exists. The Rome imprint at “The Sacred College of Propaganda” is false, and it was in actual fact printed in London according to ESTC, or possible Holland, according to Weller.
Sabin: 48910; ESTC: T137880.
