La Raison par alphabet
The Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire, burned in Geneva and banned in Rome and Paris, in contemporary binding with the arms of the Marquis de Barbançon, born in 1714.
2 octavo volumes of 384 pp. and (2) ff., 343 pp.
Blond calf, gilt fillets and arms on the boards, smooth spines decorated with gilt motifs, gilt fillet on the edges, red edges. Armorial bindings of the period.
195 x 115 mm.
Voltaire. Reason Alphabetically. Sixth edition, revised, corrected and enhanced by the author.
(Geneva, Cramer), 1769.
First edition under this title and partly the original edition of thePhilosophical Dictionary published in 1764.
This edition contains four new entries: Carême (Lent), Questions sur le Carême (Questions about Lent); Credo; Inquisition; Torture, thus raising the number of entries to 118. There is also an addition to the entry on Job. – Cat. B.N.F., II, no. 35 91.
The A B C, seventeen dialogues translated from English by Mr. Huet (see Mélanges), is included in vol. II of the Reason Alphabetically (pp. 197-339).
The impact of the Philosophical Dictionary was immense; it is around works such as this that Voltairean philosophy was to develop.
“Voltaire’s participation in the Encyclopédie, to which he had offered his services, gave him the pretext to write a series of articles that were bold statements of opinion. It is these articles that he brings together in the ‘Philosophical Dictionary’, without waiting for the Encyclopédie to be completed—the final volume did not appear until 1772. Most of the entries concern religion. Voltaire no longer attacks only the clergy, but targets religion itself and dogma; he wants to demonstrate that even if the Holy Scriptures are not falsified, they are absurd and immoral. However, he does not go so far as atheism. In disagreement with d’Holbach and even Diderot, he acknowledges the existence of a God, Architect of the Universe. Another, shorter series is devoted to politics. As usual, Voltaire is the champion of freedom of thought and constitutional government.”
The Philosophical Dictionary, burned in Geneva by the hand of the executioner on September 26, 1764, was condemned by order of the Parliament of Paris, March 19, and by decree of the Roman court, July 8, 1765 (Index librorum prohibitorum, Modoetiae, p. 118).
Copy of the Philosophical Dictionary preserved in its elegant contemporary armorial binding.
As the book was condemned, banned, and actively sought after, it seemed reckless to affix one’s coat of arms to it.
Fine copy bound in contemporary blond calf with the arms ofLouis-Antoine du Prat, Marquis de Barbançon, born August 3, 1714. He became mestre de camp of cavalry in 1735, brigadier on May 2, 1744, maréchal de camp on January 1, 1748, governor in 1735 of Coucy, chief huntsman to the Duke of Orléans in March 1752 and lieutenant-general on May 1, 1758.
