Heterodoxy, Spinozism, and Free Thought in Early-Eighteenth-Century Europe: Studies on the Trait? des Trois Imposteurs [Paperback]

'the oldest biography of Spinoza', La Vie de Mr. Spinosa, which in the manuscript copies is often followed by L'Esprit de M. Spinosa. Margaret Jacob, in her Radical Enlightenment, contended that the Traite was written by a radical group of Freemasons in The Hague in the early eighteenth century. Silvia Berti has offered evidence it was written by Jan Vroesen. Various discussions in the early eighteenth century consider many possi? ble authors from the Renaissance onwards to whom the work might be attributed. The Trois imposteurs has attracted quite a bit of recent attention as one of the most significant irreligious clandestine writings available in the Enlightenment, which is most important for understanding the develop? ment of religious scepticism, radical deism, and even atheism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scholars for the last couple of decades have been trying to assess when the work was actually written or compiled and by whom. In view of the widespread distribution of manu? scripts of the work all over Europe, they have also been seeking to find out who was influenced by the work, and what it represented for its time. Hitherto unknown manuscripts are being turned up in public and private libraries all over Europe and the United States.I. History and Interpretation of the Trait? des Trois Imposteurs.- 1. LEsprit de Spinosa: ses origines et sa premi?re ?dition dans leur contexte spinozien.- 2. Une Histoire interminable: origines et d?veloppement du Trait? des trois imposteurs.- 3. History and structure of our Trait? des trois imposteurs.- 4. LEsprit de Spinosa et les Trait?s des trois imposteurs: rappel des diff?rentes familles et de leurs principales caract?ristiques.- II. Around the Trait?.- 5. Freethinking in early-eighteenth-century Protestant Germany: Peter Friedrich Arpe and the Trait? des trois imposteurs.- 6. The English Deists and the Trait?.- 7. Sallengre, La Monnoye, and the Trait? des trois imposteurs.- 8. The politics of a pl¸