The Great Protector of Wits: Baron d'Holbach and His Time

'The Great Protector of Wits' provides a new assessment of baron d’Holbach (1723–1789) and his circle. A challenging figure of the European Enlightenment, Paul-Henri Thiry d’Holbach was not only a radically materialistic philosopher, a champion of anticlericalism, the author of the 'Système de la nature' – known as 'the Bible of atheists' –, an idéologue, a popularizer of the natural sciences and a prolific contributor to the 'Encyclopédie', but he also played a crucial role as an organizer of intellectual networks and was a master of disseminating clandestine literature and a consummate strategist in authorial fictions. In this collective volume, for the first time, all these different threads of d’Holbach’s 'philosophy in action' are considered and analyzed in their interconnection.