Bibliotheque Choisie, pour servir de Suite a la Bibliotheque Universelle. Tome II, III, IV, VI, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIV

Partial set of nine volumes. 18mo. French text. Contemporary vellum, spines stamped in gilt, sprinkled edges. Titles printed in red and black with engraved vignette. An important journal, instrumental in spreading the English Enlightenment throughout Europe. John Yolton notes that "[o]ne of the more important journals coverages of this long debate [over materialism] was Jean LeClerc's Bibliotheque Choisie. Published in Holland in duodecimo, written in French, LeClerc's journal kept his continental readers well informed of British publications. It was also read in England. From 1703 to 1713, LeClerc ran review after review of all the central books. He took as his basic text Cudworth's True Intellectual System…." - Thinking Matter (Minnesota 1983). Rosalie Colie has noted that, "In 1703, Le Clerc began to print in the Bibliotheque Choisie, the successor to Bibliotheque Universelle, a series of extracts in French translation of Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe, a venture that was to involve him in a splendid and vitriolic battle with the indefatigable Bayle over plastic nature…. [P]robably … the suggestion to use Cudworth polemically originated with Locke and the household at Oates." -- John Locke in the Republic of Letters (pp. 71-72) in A Locke Miscellany (Thoemmes [1990]). Volume II here (pp. 78-130) has an extract from Cudworth on nature plastique and Volume VIII opens (pp. 1-106) with two other extracts from Cudworth, on the immateriality of God and of the soul, respectively. The volumes here contain a number of articles devoted to Locke and his work, the most notable being Le Clerc's "Eloge de feu Mr. Locke" (VI: 342-411; Yolton C1705-5), the first biography of Locke, based on letters to Le Clerc from Shaftesbury and Lady Masham, and the starting point for all later biographies. That is by no means the only piece pertaining to Locke: Volume II (pp. 284-305) contains a review of the French translation of The Reasonableness of Christianity and Volume XII (pp. 80-170) a series of three articles, "Remarques sur l'Essai concernant L'Entendement de Mr. Locke," "Sa Defense contre Mr. Bayle," and a review of the 5th edition of Locke's Posthumous Works (Yolton C1707-2). The second of these pieces in one of a number of critical articles on Bayle that elicited rejoinders. Locke had volumes I-IV in his library (Harrison & Laslett 777).