Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary. Translated and Unexpurgated.

VOLTAIRE [AROUET, François-Marie].

$600.00

Item Number: 138954

Paris: E. R. Dumont, 1901.

Finely bound set of Voltaire’s famed Dictionnaire philosophique; the culmination of his views on Christianity, God, and morality. Octavo, ten volumes, bound in three quarter pebbled morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, marbled endpapers, title page in red and black. In very good condition.

First published in 1764, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary contains over one hundred alphabetically arranged articles structured in the tradition of Bayle, Diderot and d'Alembert. Voltaire saw problems with previous dictionaries, chiefly that they were all lengthy, and thus very expensive and inaccessible for much of the population; he therefore sought to create a text which would fit in one's pocket, stating: "revolutionary material must be small enough for people to carry with them." Upon publication, the book was heavily censored by religious authorities. In Switzerland and France, all available copies of the book were collected and burned.