Dictionnaire Historique et Critique

The Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (French pronunciation: [diksjɔnɛːʁ istɔʁik e kʁitik]; English: Historical and Critical Dictionary) was a French biographical dictionary written by Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), a Huguenot philosopher who lived and published in Rotterdam, in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, after fleeing his native France due to religious persecution.

[2] The overwhelming majority of the entries were devoted to individual people, whether historical or mythical, but some articles treated religious beliefs and philosophies.

[3] Many of the more controversial ideas in the book were hidden away in the voluminous footnotes, or they were slipped into articles on seemingly uncontroversial topics.

The rigor and skeptical approach demonstrated in the Dictionary influenced many thinkers of the Enlightenment, including Denis Diderot and the other Encyclopédistes, David Hume, and George Berkeley.

Beuchot edition (1820) at the Internet Archive (in French): Abridged English translation (Hunt & Clarke, 1826) at Google Books: