Editing Jean Barbeyrac

{{Short description|French jurist}}
{{No footnotes|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Jean Barbeyrac
| image       = Samuel-von-Pufendorf-Jean-Barbeyrac-Le-droit-de-la-nature-et-des-gens MG 0993.tif
| alt         = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1674|03|15|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Béziers]], [[Kingdom of France]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1744|03|03|1674|03|15|df=yes}} 
| death_place = [[Groningen]], [[Dutch Republic]]
| nationality = French
| other_names = 
| occupation  = Professor of law
| known_for   = 
}}
'''Jean Barbeyrac''' ({{IPA|fr|baʁbɛʁak|lang}}; 15 March 1674 – 3 March 1744) was a French [[jurist]] and translator. A French [[Huguenots|Huguenot]], he translated influential works by [[Hugo Grotius]], [[Samuel von Pufendorf]], [[Richard Cumberland (philosopher)|Richard Cumberland]] and others into French.<ref>{{Citation |last=Grewal |first=David Singh |title=Barbeyrac’s Intervention |date=2024-11-28 |work=The Cambridge History of Rights |pages=15–44 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019521.003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-01952-1}}</ref>

==Life==
Born at [[Béziers]] in [[Lower Languedoc]], he was the nephew of Charles Barbeyrac, a distinguished [[physician]] of [[Montpellier]]. He moved with his family into [[Switzerland]] after the [[Revocation of the Edict of Nantes]]. After spending some time at [[Geneva]] and [[Frankfurt am Main]], he became professor of ''belles-lettres'' in the French school of Berlin. Then, in 1711, he was called to the professorship of [[history]] and [[civil law (legal system)|civil law]] at [[Lausanne]], finally settling as professor of public law at [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]].

==Works==
[[File:Barbeyrac, Jean – Discours sur l'utilité des lettres et des sciences, par rapport au bien de l'Etat, 1715 – BEIC 609835.jpg|thumb|''Discours sur l'utilité des lettres et des sciences, par rapport au bien de l'Etat'', 1715]]

His fame rests chiefly on the preface and notes to his translation of [[Samuel Pufendorf]]'s treatise ''De Jure Naturae et Gentium'', translated as ''Of the Law of Nature and Nations'', 4th ed., 1729, London, by B. Kennett et al. Barbeyrac's preface appears in this fourth edition with the title: 'Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Science of Morality, and the Progress It has Made in the World, From the Earliest Times Down to the Publication of This Work'. In the fundamental principles, he follows almost entirely [[John Locke]] and Pufendorf; but he works out with great skill the theory of moral obligation, referring it to the command or will of God. He indicates the distinction, developed more fully by [[Christian Thomasius|Thomasius]] and [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], between the legal and the moral qualities of action. The principles of international law he reduces to those of the law of nature, and in so doing opposes many of the positions taken up by Grotius. He rejects the notion that sovereignty in any way resembles property, and makes even marriage a matter of civil contract. Barbeyrac also translated [[Hugo Grotius|Grotius]]'s ''[[De Jure Belli et Pacis]]'', [[Richard Cumberland (philosopher)|Cumberland]]'s ''De Legibus Naturae'', and Pufendorf's smaller treatise ''De Officio Hominis et Civis''.

Among his own productions are a treatise, ''De la morale des pères'', a history of ancient treaties, ''Histoire des anciens traitez'', contained in the ''Supplement au Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens'', and the curious ''Traité du jeu'' (1709), in which he defends the morality of games of chance.

<gallery>
Barbeyrac, Jean – Recueil de discours sur diverses matieres importantes, 1731 – BEIC 14205754.jpg|''Recueil de discours sur diverses matieres importantes'', 1731
</gallery>

==References==
* {{Cite book|title=Discours sur l'utilité des lettres et des sciences, par rapport au bien de l'Etat|volume=|publisher=Pierre Humbert|location=Amsterdam|year=1715|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=609835}}
* {{Cite book|last=Barbeyrac|first=Jean|title=Recueil de discours sur diverses matieres importantes|volume=1|publisher=Pierre Humbert|location=Amsterdam|year=1731|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=14205754}}
* Fiammetta Palladini, ''Die Berliner Hugenotten und der Fall Barbeyrac. Orthodoxe und "Sozinianer" im Refuge (1685-1720)'' (Leiden, Brill, 2011) (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 204).
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Barbeyrac, Jean}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | author=Päivärinne, Meri | title=Jean Barbeyrac, traducteur et homme de lettres | publisher=University of Helsinki | year=2018 | isbn=978-951-51-4231-3 | type=Ph.D. thesis | url=http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4232-0 | language=French}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Jean Barbeyrac}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbeyrac, Jean}}
[[Category:1674 births]]
[[Category:1744 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Béziers]]
[[Category:French legal scholars]]
[[Category:French Protestants]]