Diary of John Adams, volume 2
1778-10-30
Last Saturday I dined with Mr. Grand in Company with Mr. Gebelin Author of the Monde Primitif.1
Antoine Court de Gébelin (1725–1784) was the author of Monde
, a vast and learned but unfinished work on mythology and language of which JA owned a copy (9 vols., Paris, 1775–1782) that he read and heavily annotated in old age. See
Catalogue of JA's Library, p. 65; Alfred Iacuzzi,
John Adams, Scholar, N.Y., 1952, p. 230–232. Court de Gebelin is said to have served as one of the editors of the
Affaires de l'Angleterre et de l'Amérique, a vehicle of American propaganda in which Franldin and JA were much interested (Hoefer,
Nouv. Biog. Générale;see notes on entries of 11 Feb. and 3 March 1779, below).