Dictionnaire Historique et Critique. Cinquième Édition...

Hardcover. Four folio volumes. The editors of Printing and the Mind of Man say, of Bayle and his Dictionnaire (no. 155): "Bayle, a Protestant philosopher, wrote his Historical and Critical Encyclopedia in his voluntary exile in Rotterdam as an anti-clerical counterblast to Moréri's work, in order, as he put it, "to rectify Moréri's mistakes and fill the gaps." Bayle championed reason against belief, philosophy against religion, tolerance against superstition. In a seemingly detached way he posed arguments and counter-arguments side by side, restricting his most daring insinuations to the renvois (references) which supplemented the actual entries. For over half a century, until publication of the Encyclopédie, Bayle's Dictionnaire dominated enlightened thinking in every part of Europe." With its four-volume Supplément: Chauffepré, Jacques George de, 1702-1740. Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique et Critique pour Servir de Supplément ou de Continuation au Dictionnaire Historique et Critique de Mr. Pierre Bayle... Amsterdam & La Haye, 1750-1756. Four folio volumes; first edition. Chauffepré, a Protestant philosopher and French exile in Holland much like Bayle, extended the Dictionnaire by adding material, some translated from English, some composed by himself. There are many more entries on scientists-- Leipniz, Mersenne, Galileo, Gallois. While not of the revolutionary importance of Bayle, Chauffepré reflects awareness of the importance of science, particularly English science, during the early eighteenth century. For Chauffepré see Cioranescu 18845. NUC 104: 658. These eight volumes, former property of the Providence Public Library, are handsomely rebound with red leather spines; condition of interior is superb. stock#OB450 extra-oversize.