Critique of Biblical Legends

Description

PIGAULT-LEBRUN (Guillaume-Charles-Antoine) Le Citateur. Published by Barba, Paris 1803 – 2 parts in 1 vol. 12mo, XVI-168 pp., 190 pp., contemporary cardboard binding. Original edition. This work was banned during the Restoration and placed on the index due to its critiques of biblical legends and Christian dogmas. Drujon p. 95 notes, "Mr. de Reiffenberg recounts that Napoleon I, furious over an aggressive papal brief, wanted to distribute 10,000 copies of Le Citateur to the public in 1811." The Citateur (1803) resulted in Pigault-Lebrun [1753-1835] losing his position as a customs inspector under the Restoration. In this witty anti-religious pamphlet, Pigault-Lebrun compares sacred texts against themselves, asserting that reasoning is 'unnecessary' with priests. (Beaumarchais/Couty/Rey, Dictionary of Literatures III, 1881) Gay-Lemonnyer, I, 592: “This book sarcastically and irreverently attacks the more or less historical legends of the Bible, dogmas, and the worship of the Christian religion." Galitzin 351. Dictionary of Erotic Works