Rorario tra Naudé e Bayle

Written in 1544 and published by Naudé at Paris in 1648, the humanist Girolamo Ro- rario’s Quod animalia bruta ratione utantur melius homine is set within a naturalistic framework and clearly exhibits a Plutarchian influence. By placing this text back in circulation, Naudé recovers, in line with Montaigne and in tacit opposition to Car- tesianism, the hypothesis of animal rationality, while his dedicatory Epistola to the Dupuy brothers refers to a far-reaching libertas philosophica. Rorario’s work would enjoy renewed popularity thanks to the entry Rorarius in Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique. The pages written by the philosopher of Rotterdam rightfully include this Renaissance text within the post-Cartesian debate on animal-machines and within the context of Leibniz’s critical discussions on pre-established harmony.