The dictionary derived from the Dictionnaire historique et critique of Pierre Bayle, already translated into English in 1710 by Pierre des Maizeaux as An Historical and Critical Dictionary,[1] but expanded the material with many biographies of English figures, this work being assigned largely to Thomas Birch.
[2] The other two main editors were John Peter Bernard, whose efforts led to his admission as a Fellow of the Royal Society,[3] and John Lockman, who undertook a fresh translation of Bayle's work.
[4] The publishers were Richard Chandler and Caesar Ward.
[5] The work has been described as the "first important ancestor" of the Dictionary of National Biography.
[6] This article about a biographical dictionary is a stub.