The Great Protector of Wits provides a new assessment of baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) and his circle. A challenging figure of the European Enlightenment, Paul-Henri Thiry d'Holbach was not only a radically materialistic philosopher, a champion of anticlericalism, the author of the Systeme de la nature - known as 'the Bible of atheists' -, an ideologue, a popularizer of the natural sciences and a prolific contributor to the Encyclopedie, but he also played a crucial role as an organizer of intellectual networks and was a master of disseminating clandestine literature and a consummate strategist in authorial fictions. In this collective volume, for the first time, all these different threads of d'Holbach's 'philosophy in action' are considered and analyzed in their interconnection. Contributors to this volume: Jacopo Agnesina, Nicholas Cronk, Melanie Ephreme, Enrico Galvagni, Jonathan Israel, Alan Charles Kors, Mladen Kozul, Brunello Lotti, Emilio Mazza, Gianluca Mori, Iryna Mykhailova, Gianni Paganini, Paolo Quintili, Alain Sandrier, Ruggero Sciuto, Maria Susana Seguin, and Gerhardt Stenger.

The first scholarly book on Thomas Vaughan (1621-1666) draws from recent studies in Western esotericism to place his famously difficult writings in their proper context. It shows that they develop themes from a distinctively Rosicrucian synthesis of alchemy, magic, and Christian cabala. Vaughan introduced Rosicrucian documents to English readers and placed them in older philosophical contexts during the breakdown of censorship that followed the English Revolution against the old order in politics and religion. Willard's book will appeal to students of early modern ideas about religion, science, and society as they were seen by an intelligent and eloquent outsider.