Giulio Perini und seine Übersetzung der Essais : Montaignes Rezeption in der italienischen Aufklärung zwischen Gessner und Wieland

In 1785, Giulio Perini (1733–1801) published his two-volume translation of thirty-nine chapters from Montaigne’s Essais. Perini is considered an able scho- lar, full of joie de vivre, who cultivated disparate interests, guided by his personal predilections and idiosyncratic inclinations. As vicesegretario of the Nuova Reale Accademia Fiorentina – which in the course of Grand Duke Peter Leopold’s re- forms had replaced the long-established Accademia della Crusca in 1783 – and in concert with leading intellectuals of his time (e.g. Melchiorre Cesarotti), Perini ad- vocated for linguistic modernization as well as for overcoming the puristic ten- dencies which still dominated discussions about the characteristics of the Italian language, the conditions of its use, and its social implications. The realization of his objectives included an intense engagement in translation that encompassed works in French and German from various genres. Together with his versions of works by Salomon Gessner and Christoph Martin Wieland, Perini’s rendition of Montaigne – which is notably accompanied by keen observations on language theory – also contributed to his project of promoting the international circulation of knowledge.