"THE ARSENAL OF THE ENLIGHTMENT"

BAYLE, PIERRE.

Dictionnaire Historique et Critique. Cinquiéme Édition. Revue, corrigée, et Augmentée de remarques critiques. Avec la Vie de L'Auteur par Mr. Des Maizeaux. 5 Vols (A-Z, all).

Amsterdam, Compagnie des Librarires, 1734. Folio. Bound in 5 contemp. full calf.Raised bands, richly gilt spines. Wear to spine ends. Corners variously bumped. Some covers with scratches. 5 Large engraved titlevignettes. Titlepages printed in red/black. A few quires with browning. Few scattered brownspots. Engraved portrait of Bayle (Petite F.(ecit)

In this fifth Amsterdam-edition is found at the end of each volume the critical remarques of l'abbe Le Clerc. "For over half a century, until the publication of the "Encyclopédie", Bayle's "Dictionnaire" dominated enlightened thinking in every part of Europe." (PMM: 155, the first edition published 1695).

Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique stands as the supreme achievement of one of the seventeenth century's most prominent men of letters. Based in Rotterdam, Bayle animated intellectual discussion in Europe through his work as editor and author and as a prolific correspondant. Originally conceived as a response to the errors in Louis Moréri's Grand dictionnaire historique, his Dictionnaire historique et critique grew to be an exemplary work of critical methodology. The author painstakingly compiled, compared, questioned, seeking some degree of historical certainty, however small. The Bayle Dictionnaire has been called the "Arsenal of the Enlightenment", pillaged and re-edited throughout the eighteenth century by believers and sceptics alike who gathered ammunition for philosophical argument in the work's recondite notes.

Order-nr.: 48528