Un interlocutore di Bayle e di Leibniz : Samuel Chappuzeau e il Dessein d'un nouveau Dictionnaire (1694)

Samuel Chappuzeau (1625-1701) is the author of historical texts and of two encyclopedic essays - the Prospectus de la Bibliothèque Universelle (1681) and the Dessein d'un nouveau Dictionnaire (1694) - that outline the projects of two texts he would never publish. The Dessein was well known and discussed in the "Republic of Letters", among others by Leibniz, who was always interested in dictionaries, and by Pierre Bayle who in the same period was writing his Dictionnaire historique et critique. Chappuzeau's planned Dictionnaire is the subject of the few letters he exchanged with Bayle and Leibniz. In his Dessein Chappuzeau criticizes the Catholic orthodoxy of Louis Moreri's Grand dictionnaire historique and reveals his intention to write a dictionary for a Protestant readership. He also discusses encyclopedic and historical knowledge, as well as religious tolerance. [Publisher's Text].