"A Fair Enquiry into Truth": A Freethinker's Translation of Ciceronian Theology in Enlightenment England

abstract:In London in 1741, a translation of Cicero's De natura deorum was published, equipped with "critical, philosophical, and explanatory notes" and an "Enquiry into the Astronomy and Anatomy of the Antients," through which the translator hoped "to guard the Mind against Superstition, and to prepare it for a fair Enquiry into Truth." Throughout the translation, there is a notable emphasis on the principles associated with the Freethinking philosophy, a subject of debate among English intellectuals in the early eighteenth century. This Freethinking tone was sufficiently prominent to prompt David Berman to suggest Anthony Collins as a possible candidate for the translator of the piece. This essay focuses on how the tools for transmitting the classical text—editing, commenting, translating—were exploited to make the text better serve this Freethinking philosophy, providing a powerful example of the transformative influence scholarship could have over the classical text in the early modern period.