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26-837: The Dictionnaire philosophique ( Philosophical Dictionary ) is an encyclopedic dictionary published by the Enlightenment thinker Voltaire in 1764. The alphabetically arranged articles often criticize the Roman Catholic Church , Judaism , Islam , and other institutions. The first edition, released in June 1764, went by the name of Dictionnaire philosophique portatif . It was 344 pages and consisted of 73 articles. Later versions were expanded into two volumes consisting of 120 articles. The first editions were published anonymously in Geneva by Gabriel Grasset. Due to

52-515: A murder. Despite Jean Calas's claiming that his son died by suicide, and the testimony of Jeanne Viguière, Calas's Catholic governess, the parlement (regional court) of Toulouse held that Jean Calas had murdered his son. And on 9 March 1762, the court sentenced him to be broken on the wheel -- judicially executed. The same sentence subjected Calas to death by torture. The government stretched his arms and legs until they were pulled out of their sockets. Seventeen litres (36 US pints) of water

78-495: A somewhat distinct class of reference books. While there are similarities to both dictionaries and encyclopedias, there are important distinctions as well: Compared to a dictionary, the encyclopedic dictionary offers a more complete description and a choice of entries selected to convey a range of knowledge. Compared to an encyclopedia, the encyclopedic dictionary offers ease of use, through summarized entries and in some cases more entries of separate terms; and often reduced size, and

104-494: Is a text which educated and amused at the same time. Voltaire's motivations for writing the Philosophical Dictionary can be seen as serendipitous. The idea was spawned at a dinner party in the court of Prince Frederick II of Prussia in 1752, during which he and other guests each agreed to write an article and share them the next morning. Voltaire consequently was the only guest to take the game seriously and

130-561: The Encyclopédie always in alphabetical order, led many following editors to join this and the Dictionnaire (plus other minor works) in a unique opus. The Dictionnaire was a lifelong project for Voltaire. It represents the culmination of his views on Christianity , God , morality and other subjects. The Enlightenment saw the creation of a new way of structuring information in books . The first work to employ this method

156-469: The Catholic Church. The reception of the Philosophical Dictionary at the time was mixed. On one hand, the book saw a very strong reception on the part of the general public. The first edition was quickly sold out; many more editions were needed to keep up with the demand. Enlightened rulers such as Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia both have been recorded as supporters of

182-600: The German Conversations-Lexikon (1796–1808) was just 2,762 pages in six volumes, and while that work was later expanded, its format using numerous, less lengthy entries served as the principal model for many 19th-century encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries. The principal English-language encyclopaedic dictionary of the nineteenth century was the seven-volume in 14 eponymous work by Robert Hunter (1823–1897), published by Cassell in 1879–88, and reprinted many times up to 1910, including (1895) as

208-423: The book. On the other hand, the Philosophical Dictionary was despised by religious authorities, who had a very important influence over what works were to be censored. The Philosophical Dictionary was censored in many countries, including Switzerland ( Geneva ) and France. In these countries, all available copies of the book were collected and burned in the town square. Voltaire, who remained an anonymous author,

234-491: The creation of the Philosophical Dictionary . Jean Calas was a Calvinist who was wrongfully convicted of killing his son. This occurred because there had been a rumour that the murder was fueled by Calas' son conversion to Catholicism. David de Beaudrige, who was in charge of the case, upon hearing this rumour, had the Calas family arrested without inquiry. Voltaire used this theme in the Philosophical Dictionary to fight against

260-464: The ground floor of the family's home. Rumors had it that Jean Calas had killed his son because he intended to convert to Catholicism. When interrogated, the family initially claimed that Marc-Antoine had been killed by a murderer. Then they declared that they had found Marc-Antoine dead, hanged; because suicide was considered a heinous crime against oneself, and the dead bodies of suicides were defiled, they had arranged for their son's suicide to look like

286-432: The idea cascaded to form the Philosophical Dictionary . The Philosophical Dictionary is structured in the tradition of Bayle, Diderot and d'Alembert – that is to say, alphabetically ordered. Although this order helps readers more easily find articles, this was not meant to be a dictionary or encyclopaedia in the same totalizing way of d'Alembert's project. Voltaire's writing is neither objective nor varied in opinion;

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312-559: The mass-circulation Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary . Hunter was assisted by zoology author Henry Scherren and a small team of domestic assistants at his house in Loughton. In the US, the dictionary was reissued with a variety of titles. Jean Calas Jean Calas (1698 – 10 March 1762) was a merchant living in Toulouse , France, who was tried, judicially tortured, and executed for

338-414: The murder of his son, despite his protestations of innocence. Calas was a Protestant in an officially Catholic society. Doubts about his guilt were raised by opponents of the Catholic Church and he was exonerated in 1764. In France, he became a symbolic victim of religious intolerance , along with François-Jean de la Barre and Pierre-Paul Sirven . Calas, along with his wife, was a Protestant. France

364-666: The organization of the encyclopedic dictionary to create the early major encyclopedias, the French Encyclopédie and later the British Encyclopædia Britannica . The flourish of encyclopedic dictionaries was mainly because of the pioneering Estienne family in France. However, such comprehensive works were costly and difficult to produce, and to keep current; and the detailed entries were not ideal for some reference uses. The first version of

390-407: The press. Because this work was written late in the author's life, coupled with the fact that it is compiled of articles written over an extended period of time, the work had many influences, which noticeably change, depending on the theme which the article addresses. The first major influence on the Philosophical Dictionary is Voltaire's visit to England, which gave him the opportunity to compare

416-399: The problems in France with a place that had free press and to become better acquainted with important and influential thinkers such as Locke and Newton. Newtonian theory is influential in many of the articles that deal with tolerance stating that if we "do not know the essence of things we will not persecute others", for those things. The Calas affair was an event that shaped Voltaire during

442-410: The publisher's selection of a title. The encyclopedic dictionary evolved from the dictionary. John Harris subtitled his landmark Lexicon Technicum a "universal English dictionary of Arts and Sciences"; it was the first English-language, alphabetically ordered collection of knowledge. The 18th-century encyclopedists, in turn, dramatically expanded the depth and, in some cases, substantially revised

468-475: The reduced publishing and purchase cost that implies. The question of how to structure the entries, and how much information to include, are among the core issues in organizing reference books. As different approaches are better suited to different uses or users, all three approaches have been in wide use since the end of the 18th century. The title of the volume may not be a good indication of which type of reference it is, as commercial concerns may have affected

494-494: The same arguments are made throughout the Philosophical Dictionary emphasizing the point of his discontent. Many of the themes addressed by Voltaire in this book are addressed or touched upon in his work L'Infame . In this and other works, Voltaire is very concerned about the injustices of the Catholic Church, which he sees as intolerant and fanatical. At the same time, his work espouses deism (though he calls it theism , contrary to its modern meaning), tolerance and freedom of

520-403: The volatile content of the Dictionnaire , Voltaire chose Grasset over his usual publisher to ensure his own anonymity . There were many editions and reprints of the Dictionnaire during Voltaire's lifetime, but only four of them contained additions and modifications. Furthermore, another work published in 1770, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie , which contained reshaped and modified articles from

546-418: Was guilty of anti-Catholic fanaticism were dispelled by his investigations, he began a campaign to get Calas's sentence overturned, claiming that Marc-Antoine had committed suicide because of gambling debts and not being able to finish his university studies due to his denomination. Voltaire's efforts were successful, and King Louis XV received the family and had the sentence annulled in 1764. The king fired

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572-473: Was not completed until 1764. Having had the opportunity to write his Dictionary at a later point in time, Voltaire saw that there were certain problems with previous dictionaries, chiefly that they were all lengthy, and thus very expensive and inaccessible for much of the population. Voltaire sought to create a text which would fit in one's pocket and be affordable because "revolutionary material must be small enough for people to carry with them". What he created

598-415: Was poured down his throat . He was tied to a cross in the cathedral square, on which each of his limbs was broken twice by an iron bar. Yet even under this torture, Calas continued to declare his innocence. On 10 March, at the age of 64, Jean Calas died on the wheel, while still firmly declaring his innocence. French philosopher Voltaire was contacted about the case, and after initial suspicions that Calas

624-829: Was repeatedly asked if he minded that the Portatif was being burned, but he calmly replied that he had no reason to be upset. Of the many editions just four of them present additions: Encyclopedic dictionary Historically, the term has been used to refer to any encyclopedic reference book (that is, one comprehensive in scope), which was organized alphabetically, as with the familiar dictionary (the term dictionary preceded encyclopedia in common usage by about two centuries). To convey their alphabetic method of organization and to contrast that method with other systems for classifying knowledge, many early encyclopedias were titled or sub-titled "a dictionary of arts and sciences" or something similar. However, it later developed into

650-498: Was the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (1697) by Pierre Bayle , in which the information is ordered alphabetically. Other important works using a similar structure followed, such as the Encyclopédie by Diderot and Jean d'Alembert . Having witnessed first-hand the popularity and many advantages of this form, Voltaire used this information while preparing the Philosophical Dictionary in 1752, although it

676-414: Was then a Catholic country; Catholicism was the state religion , with no legal right for individuals to practice different faiths. While the harsh oppression of Protestantism initiated by King Louis XIV had largely receded, Protestants were, at best, tolerated. Louis, one of Calas's sons, converted to Catholicism in 1756. On 13–14 October 1761, another of the Calas sons, Marc-Antoine, was found dead on

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