Critique of Biblical Legends

Description

PIGAULT-LEBRUN (Guillaume-Charles-Antoine) Le Citateur. Paris: Barba, 1803 – Two parts in one volume, octavo, with XVI-168 pages and 190 pages, original cardboard binding of the time. First edition. This work was banned during the Restoration and placed on the index due to its criticism of biblical legends and Christian dogmas. It is noted that Napoleon I, furious over a brief from the Pope, sought in 1811 to have 10,000 copies of Le Citateur publicly destroyed. The pamphlet’s irreligious wit contrasts sacred texts against each other, remarking that “it is useless to speak reason to priests.” (Beaumarchais/Couty/Rey, Dictionnaire des Littératures III, 1881) Gay-Lemonnyer, I, 592: “This book mocks more or less historical legends of the Bible, Christian dogmas, and religious worship in a scoffing, mocking, and indecent manner.” Galitzin 351. Dictionnaire des Oeuvres érotiques.