A comprehensive biography of the Treatise of the Three Impostors, a
controversial nonexistent medieval book. Like a lot of good
stories, this one begins with a rumor: in 1239, Pope Gregory IX
accused Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, of heresy. Without
disclosing evidence of any kind, Gregory announced that Frederick
had written a supremely blasphemous book-De tribus impostoribus, or
the Treatise of the Three Impostors-in which Frederick denounced
Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as impostors. Of course, Frederick
denied the charge, and over the following centuries the story
played out across Europe, with libertines, freethinkers, and other
"strong minds" seeking a copy of the scandalous text. The
fascination persisted until finally, in the eighteenth century,
someone brought the purported work into actual existence-in not one
but two versions, Latin and French. Although historians have
debated the origins and influences of this nonexistent book, there
has not been a comprehensive biography of the Treatise of the Three
Impostors. In The Atheist's Bible, the eminent historian Georges
Minois tracks the course of the book from its origins in 1239 to
its most salient episodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, introducing readers to the colorful individuals obsessed
with possessing the legendary work-and the equally obsessive
passion of those who wanted to punish people who sought it.
Minois's compelling account sheds much-needed light on the power of
atheism, the threat of blasphemy, and the persistence of free
thought during a time when the outspoken risked being burned at the
stake.
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