Le Grand Dictionnaire historique was an encyclopedia originally compiled by the Catholic priest and theologian Louis Moréri (1643–1680). By later standards, it was highly specialized, for nearly all of its entries were on geographical and historical subjects, but it marked the start of a flood of other dictionaries and encyclopedias in Europe's vernaculars. In addition to being successful in its own right, Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire served as a springboard and foil for Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (1697).
Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire appeared in numerous French editions between 1674 and 1759, growing in size with each edition. Moréri himself died after preparing materials for the second edition (1681). Thereafter, other Francophone scholars took charge of the compilation, notably Jean Le Clerc.
The Grand Dictionnaire was also translated and adapted into English, German, Dutch, and Spanish.[1]
Online availability: Dictionnaire de Moréri and also here.
- ^ Arnold Miller, "Louis Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire historique," In Notable Encyclopedias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Nine Predecessors of the Encyclopédie, ed. Frank A. Kafker (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1981), 13-52.