"Bayle, Jurieu, and the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique is impeccably presented and beautifully produced; the images, sub-headings, and index are consistently pertinent and helpful." -- Felix Waldmann, University of Cambridge, British Journal for the History of Philosophy "By reading this book, a profound sense of the man and his many intensions is expertly conveyed." -- Richard Whatmore, Univeristy of St Andrews, English Historical Review "Mara van der Lugt's remarkable book will serve as a very useful guide to hurried readers who cannot ignore the Dictionnaire."--Jean Bernier, Erudition and the Republic of Letters "[T]his is a well-researched and useful book for anyone interested in early modern philosophy and in Baylean studies. It organizes a very complex topic in a clear and accessible way. Mara van der Lugt succeeds in her task of introducing a new methodology for reading Bayle, which can be used for future research."--Michaël Green, Renaissance Studies "[A] landmark contribution to Bayle studies, Mara van der Lugt offers an ambitious and original interpretation of the structure and contents of Pierre Bayle's most complex and enigmatic work van der Lugt's detailed study offers the best existing contextual analysis of the most elusive work of perhaps the most enigmatic thinker of the early Enlightenment.van der Lugt's nuanced analysis reveals the complex strategies that Bayle deployed in deliberately presenting his readers with alternative avenues for interpreting his text.

this book should be required reading for anyone interested in Pierre Bayle or the Huguenot Refuge. By revealing the many layers of interpretation woven into the Dictionnaire and situating it in its immediate historical context, Van der Lugt opens a new methodological path to decoding this complex text. She also masterfully demonstrates why Pierre Bayle should be considered a key thinker in the history of Enlightenment thought."--H-France "Scholars in history and philosophy know the extraordinary difficulty of producing original research that is simultaneously creative, well-documented, and methodologically rigorous. But this is exactly what Mara van der Lugt manages in her recent book, a comprehensive treatment of Pierre Bayle's magnum opus.One of the many virtues of van der Lugt's account is that it refuses to oversimplify, respecting both the descriptively complex terrain of the Dictionnaire, and the prescriptively complex terrain of interpretation."--Kristen Irwin, Journal of the History of Philosophy "It is impossible to do justice here to Mara van der Lugt's subtle and detailed analysis of these complex questions as treated in the labyrinthine clusters of Bayle's articles. Her work is certainly a major contribution to our understanding of how the Dictionary works and how it should be read.

"--Antony McKenna, History.