VOLTAIRE, M. de [François] The Philosophical Dictionary

THE CULMINATION OF VOLTAIRE’S VIEWS ON RELIGION AND MORALITY: A RARE DUBLIN PRINTING

Small 8vo., contemporary tree calf lettered and with decorative rules in gilt to backstrip; pp. [v], 2-331, [iii]; a very good and sound copy, the boards a little rubbed, particularly at corners and along spine; internally for the most part clean, with some occasional minor spotting; one damp mark affecting the upper right hand corner of the majority of the text; else fully legible; some early ink annotations to the front paste-down. 

New and correct edition of this Dublin printing. 

Voltaire’s Dictionnaire Philosophique was a lifetime project. First published in French in 1764, the work is arranged in an encyclopedic  form, with subjects arranged alphabetically A-Z on subjects as diverse as the Apocalypse, Circumcision, Dreams, Fraud, Liberty and Madness . Most famously, Voltaire is critical of the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, Islam, and other institutions, and it was partly because of this that the first appearance, in Geneva, was completely anonymous. Several editions appeared in the years that followed, many of them in Voltaire’s lifetime, but none with significant amendments - it was the author’s intention that  "revolutionary material must be small enough for people to carry with them", as is evidenced by the first English edition, which appeared in 1765 as ‘The Philosophical Dictionary for the Pocket’.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book was despised by religious authorities was censored in many countries including Switzerland and Fance where, should any copies be located, they were ritually burned in town squares. 

Published in a particularly active political landscape (in the midst of the French Revolution), this early Dublin edition appears scarce, with just a handful of institutional examples. 

SKU: 1800244