Apologie Pour Tous Les Grand Hommes Qui Ont Este Accusez de Magie.

Two parts in one, [xx]501pp., continuous pagination but two titles, half title, contemporary ownership inscription to half title, woodcut printers device to title, woodcut initials, head-and tail-pieces,tear without loss to H2 contemporary calf, spine gilt, speckled edges, 12mo, Paris: Chez Francois Eschart, 1669

Gabriel Naude’s  Apologie Pour Tous Les Grand Hommes is the first systemic defense of philosophers, physicians and other learned men being accused of practicing magic or witchcraft. Explaining the context in which Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Savonarola, Nostradamus, Bacon, Galen, Raymond Lull, Albertus Magnus, and so many others fell into ” the labyrinth of false opinions ,” Naudé rails against the irrational (Caillet). Naudé castigates the lies of astrologers, which he sees as a means of manipulating the masses.

Gabriel Naude was a historical critic, political thinker, and “learned libertine,” he had also been physician to King Louis XIII. He also was librarian to Cardinal Mazarin and later to Queen Christina.

Naude, who on a political level the Christian idealism of his predecessors for a utilitarian realism. In Apologie he illustrates the transition from the spirit of the Renaissance to that of the Enlightenment, by fighting against superstition and obscurantism in an era troubled by religious wars.

Three different publishers produced this edition – Eschart, Cottin and Besongne. All three versions are scarce.

Overall very clean, bright copy.

[Caillet, III, 7923; Thorndike, IV, p. 301; Yve-Plessis, Sorcellerie , 1647; Colin de Plancy, Dictionnaire des sciences occultes , pp. 203-204; Duveen, p. 423.]