As originally planned this volume was meant to cover a somewhat wider scope than, in fact, it has turned out to do. When, in rg68, I initially conceived of preparing it, it was proposed to deal with several aspects of early modern scepticism, in addition to the fortuna of the Academica, and to publish various loosely related pieces under the title of 'Studies in the History of Early Modern Scepticism. ' Thereby, I foresaw that I would exhaust my knowledge of the subject and would then be able to turn my attention to other matters. In initiating my research on this topic, however, I soon found...

It has recently been argued that the 18th century can no longer be 1 seen as gripped in the strait-jacket of Augustanism and Neoclassicism. Such labels are seen as doing less than justice to the rich variety of individual talents and intellectual trends which collectively constitute 18th century culture. While welcoming the interment of the long- standing myth of the peace of the Augustans, there seems little point in placing an interdict on labels which, willy-nilly, have stuck. In economic, social and ecclesiastical terms there is an age between 1689 and 1789 whose homogeneity is reflected...

I t is only relatively recently that serious attempts have been made to rescue Diderot's political writings from obscurity and neglect, and ascribe to the ideas expressed therein their due place in the panoply of his intellectual and artistic achievements. This has been largely made possible by the transference of the Fonds Vandeul from Diderot's descendants to the Bibliotheque Nationale in 1954. This important collection of manuscripts and papers, to which scholars have previously had very inadequate access, contains the bulk of the political writings, most of which had either never been...

Since the first appearance of this bibliography (1934, Oxford Uni versity Press), which has long been out of print, so much attention has been paid to Berkeley that a mere reprint would be inept. Besides bringing it up to date I have added collations of those editions of Berkeley's writings that were published in his lifetime. In doing so I have used a form of description simple enough for anyone to follow yet sufficient to enable librarians to check their catalogues and to identify copies in which the titlepage is missing or mutilated. As before, I have marked with an asterisk throughout the...

This book presents a philosophical position examined philosophically. Although it does not go beyond the confines ofFicino's perspective and is governed by standards of historical accuracy, it makes explicit in its explanation ofFicino's text the enduring philosophical questions which are at issue there. True, the book examines in some detail Ficino's relation to his Platonic and Scholastic sources, and this is an issue of primary interest to those who study the history of culture or the his- torical development of philosophy. However, in Ficino's thought, this issue is also a philosophical...

Neither in English nor in French is there a published study of Napoleon Bonaparte's reestablishment in France of the Congregation of the Mis 1 sion, whose members are generally known in France as Lazarists. This study, Napoleon and the Lazarists, 1804-1809, examines the reestablish ment of the Congregation of the Mission in France and its subsequent relations with the Napoleonic Government. Because religion played an important role in the policies and plans of Napoleon, this study is set with in the framework of Napoleon's general religio-political policy. Since the Concordat of 1801 was the...

This study has grown out of an interest in French education and cul- ture that dates from fondly remembered student days in France. Specifically, it is an attempt to explain the educational thought of Claude Fleury, a literate, responsible homme de leUres who analyzed the historical origins of public education as it existed in seventeenth-cen- tury France and, on that basis, proposed what he considered to be a more generally useful program of studies. Generous space has been devoted to historical, social, and pedagogical background in an effort to place Fleury's thought in its proper cultural...

In spite of its carefully planned - and fully justified - modesty, the title of this book might very well surprise more than one potential reader. It is not normal to see such controversial concepts as "Renaissance," "Renaissance Thought," "Spanish Renaissance," or even "Spanish Thought" freely linked together in the crowded intimacy of one single printed line. The author of these essays is painfully aware of the com plexity of the ground he has dared to cover. He is also aware that all the assumptions and connotations associated with the title of this book have been the subject of great...