Pierre Bayle Corpus (Dictionary; Complete Works)
With the assistance of Carla-Bayle and the Midi-Pyrénées and Rhône-Alpes regions
This corpus includes the Historical and Critical Dictionary and the Complete Literary and Philosophical Works by Pierre Bayle.
Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1740)
In four years of tireless work (1693-1696), Pierre Bayle wrote and published his Dictionnaire historique et critique in eight folio volumes of 4000 pages. Composed of exceptionally small typography, the work totals approximately 45,000,000 characters.
The Dictionnaire is composed of articles on catholic and reform theologians (Augustine, Jansen, Luther, Calvin, Beza…), heretodoxies (Anabaptists, Ochin, Socin, Alciato, Blandrata…), as well as on a variety of sects (Abelians, Adamites, Mamillaires, Picards, Turlupins…). Significant articles are dedicated to well-known Bible figures (Abraham, Eve, David…), and various mythological figures (Jupiter, Juno, Helen, Ajax, Hercules…); the articles dedicated to the ancient philosophers (Democritus, Epicurus, Chrysippus, Leucippus, Pyrrho, Zeno of Elea…) allow us to examine the coherence of their doctrines and to compare them to modern systems.
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").
The 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.
DOMAINS
Literature, philosophy, rationalism, theology, skepticism, history
Complete Literary and Philosophical Works
Recent works reveal Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) to be not only a lucid and sardonic observer of trends in the ‘new philosophy’ in France but also an active player in the development of critical rationalism and the crisis of rationalistic theology at the turn of the seventeenth century. A specialist in the history of philosophy, Bayle created a space for dialogue between ancient and modern philosophers with energy and unparalleled learning. He strove to demonstrate that what he saw as the most consistent ‘Christian philosophy’ that of Malebranche faced irresolvable objections.
Bayle was also a pioneering journalist, addressing the literary republic, the forerunner of today's Europe. A theorist of a modern conception of tolerance, he developed the idea of civic tolerance (today we would call it ‘secularism’) throughout Europe.
This set covers 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).
CONTENTS
- Œuvres diverses, ed. by Pierre Des Maizeaux, La Haye, P. Husson et al., 1727-1731
Volume I
- Nouvelles de la Republique des lettres [March 1684-February 1687]
Volume II
- Critique générale de l'Histoire du Calvinisme du P. Maimbourg, &c.
- Nouvelles lettres de l'auteur de la Critique générale de l'Histoire du Calvinisme
- Ce que c’est que la France toute Catholique sous le règne de Louis le Grand
- Commentaire Philosophique sur ces paroles de J. C. contraignez les d'entrer, où l'on réfute tous les Sophismes des Convertisseurs à contrainte
- Réponse d'un nouveau Converti à la Lettre d'un Réfugié
- Avis important aux Réfugiez sur leur prochain retour en France
- La Cabale Chimérique, &c.
- Lettre sur les petits Livres, &c.
- Déclaration de Mr. Bayle touchant le Courte revúë, &c.
- Entretiens sur la Cabale Chimérique, &c.
- La Chimere de la Cabale de Rotterdam, &c.
- Avis au petit Auteur des petits livrets, &c.
- Nouvel Avis au petit Auteur, &c.
- Nouvelle Hérésie dans la Morale prêchée par Mr. Jurieu
- Janua Cœlorum reserata cunctis Religionibus
Volume III
- Pensées diverses à l'occasion d'une Comete, &c.
- Addition aux pensées diverses sur les Cometes
- Continuation des pensées diverses à l'occasion de la Comete
- Reponse aux Questions d'un Provincial
Volume IV
- Entretiens de Maxime et de Themiste
- Opuscules de M. Pierre Bayle
- Institutio brevis et accurata Totius Philosophiæ / Systême abrégé de philosophie
- Lettres de Mr. Bayle, avec des Remarques par Mr. Des Maizeaux Membre de la Société Royale
- Discours historique sur la vie de Gustave Adolphe, Roi de Suede
- Works complementing the Œuvres diverses ed. by M. Des Maizeaux
- Jesu puero...
- Harangue ou plustôt lettre apologétique...
- Objections contre le Traité de Pierre Poiret
- Le Retour des pièces choisies, ou Bigarrures curieuses
- Préface à Isaac Papin
- Avertissement - Essais de théologie sur la Providence et la Grâce
- Theses philosophicæ quas, favente Deo, publicæ diputationi subjiciet, sub præsidio Petri Bælii [...] Philippus Muysson
- Theses philosophicæ quas, favente Deo, publice tueri conabitur sub præsidio Petri Bælli […] Antonius de Massanes
- La Porte du ciel grande ouverte [traduction de Janua Cœlorum reserata cunctis Religionibus]
- Histoire des ouvrages des savants [issues attributable to Bayle, May 1692, April 1693]
RESEARCH FIELDS
Literature, philosophy, history, theology, criticism
Author of the Database
Claude BLUM (Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne)
Editorial Team
Directors of Research
Antony McKenna, Institut d'Histoire de la Pensée classique (CNRS UMR 5037), Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne
Gianluca Mori, Groupe National de Recherche sur la philosophie moderne, de la Renaissance aux Lumières, Université du Piémont Oriental
Scientific Commitee
Lorenzo Bianchi (Naples, L'Orientale), Hubert Bost (EPHE, Paris), Hans Bots (Nimègue), Wiep van Bunge (Rotterdam), Jean-Michel Gros (Paris), Jonathan Israel (Princeton), Pierre-François Moreau, (ENS Lyon), Gianni Paganini (Vercelli), Maria-Cristina Pitassi (IHR, Genève)
Research Teams
Institut d’Histoire de la Pensée classique (CNRS UMR 5037: Lyon-Saint-Etienne), directeur, P.-F. Moreau; Groupe de recherche sur la tradition de la Renaissance, le libertinage et les Lumières, Naples, L'Orientale, directeur, L. Bianchi; Groupe National de Recherche sur la philosophie moderne, de la Renaissance aux Lumières (Université du Piémont Oriental, Vercelli), directeur, G. Paganini; Laboratoire d'Etudes sur le Monothéisme (LEM, CNRS UMR 8584), directeur, O. Boulnois; Institut Pierre Bayle (Nimègue), directeur, Chr. Berkvens-Stevelinck; History of Philosophy: the early Enlightenment in the Dutch Republic (Université Erasmus, Rotterdam), directeur, W. van Bunge; Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation (Genève), directrice, M.-C. Pitassi