Un interlocutore di Bayle e di Leibniz: Samuel Chappuzeau e il “Dessein d'un nouveau Dictionnaire” (1694)

Samuel Chappuzeau (1625-1701) is the author of historical texts and of two encyclopaedic essays – the “Prospectus de la Bibliothèque Universelle” (1681) and the “Dessein d’un nouveau Dictionnaire” (1694) – that represent the projects of two texts he will never publish. The“ Dessein” is well known and it is discussed in the “Republic of Letters”, among others by Leibniz, who was always interested in dictionaries, and by Pierre Bayle who was writing in these same years his “Dictionnaire historique et critique”. The projected “Dictionnaire” is the subject of the few letters the author exchanged with Bayle and Leibniz. In his “Dessein” Chappuzeau critics the catholic orthodoxy of Louis Moréri’s “Grand dictionnaire historique” and shows his intention of writing a dictionary for a protestant public. He also discusses encyclopaedic and historical knowledge, and religious tolerance.