Corpus Pierre Bayle

Alternate Titles: Dictionnaire historique et critique

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'Pierre Bayle established the Dictionnaire as a masterpiece symbolizing the “peaceful war” of intellectuals, or rather, the critical debate, permanent and pacifist, characterizing the Republic of Letters, in which the “empire of truth and reason” is recognized (art. "Catius").

This immense work immediately became the sine qua non reading of young philosophers and an inexhaustible source for the period’s clandestine manuscripts. It soon became one of the principal sources for Enlightenment philosophers and for Diderot and Alembert’s Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.'

The Œuvres includes 'all Bayle’s literary and philosophical work: Nouvelles de la République des lettres, the Critique de Maimbourg, the Pensées diverses and their Continuation, the Commentaire philosophique and other controversial works, and the Réponse aux questions d’un provincial. Also incorporated are the polemical works from his great battle with Jurieu, as well as the minor works, including excerpts from Henri Basnage of Beauval’s periodical which can be confidently attributed to Bayle and the famous Avis aux réfugiés, attributed somewhat controversially to Bayle for the past three centuries (the editorial team shows that this attribution is strong and reliable).

(Description from the Classiques Garnier Numérique website.)

Acquisition of this resource was made possible in part by the Harvey Mitchell Collection Fund.

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French; History; Interdisciplinary Studies; Philosophy

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