Père Fidele de Pau - Le Philosophe dithyrambique - 1765

Rare original edition of this polemical work which fully participates in the great religious and philosophical controversies of the 18th century, at a time when the ideas of the Enlightenment, deism, materialism and the critique of religious institutions provoke strong reactions from defenders of Catholic orthodoxy -

Father Fidèle de Pau, a Capuchin friar also known for his Funeral Oration of the Dauphin, adopts here a particular literary strategy: to turn against the philosophers the devices of irony, satire and polemic that they themselves use to challenge traditional beliefs -

The title Philosophe dithyrambique is deliberately provocative, since the word “dithyrambique” originally refers to chants dedicated to Bacchus, but also designates, in the author’s polemical usage, an emphatic, excessive, obscure and disorderly discourse, which allows him to present certain philosophers as writers whose apparent eloquence would conceal the weakness of their reasoning -

Père Fidele de Pau - Le Philosophe dithyrambique - 1765 - P. de Lormel -
12 Pages, XLVIII et 379 Pages.

Good binding condition, the work in its full brown morocco calf of the period, small epidermal losses, wear from use, a few minor defects on boards and spine, bumped heads, fore-edge cracked, worn corners, red edges, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering on morocco inlay, triple gilt fillets framing the boards -

Good interior condition, browning, beautiful vignette on title page, marbled endpapers in decent condition, pleasant copy -

Delivery service available within a few days -