Abstract: Taking as its starting point the word coined by Calvin to condemn the “spiritualists” and the “debauched individuals”, the aim of this paper is to trace the genealogy of the libertine movement, from mid-16th century to mid-17th century, in the Netherlands, and to provide a synthesis of the main intellectual features of those generally called “libertines.” So doing, one can see how Spinoza, from the beginning of the 1660’s, went even further than the leading figures of the libertine trend.
