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  • Censorship in eighteenth-century France

    • June 12, 2021
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    An extract from Dave’s article ‘The Old Regime’. “Censorship, of course, was the norm.  Up until 1699, it had been undertaken by several bodies: the Parlement of Paris, the Sorbonne and the Church as well as by the royal chancellor.  From 1699, however, the chancellor, Louis II Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, imposed royal authority over
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  • The great Lisbon earthquake

    • June 1, 2019
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      The Lisbon earthquake struck on November 1st (All Saints Day), 1755, and was one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. The subsequent fires and tsunami almost entirely destroyed the city and much of the surrounding area.  The horror and tragedy of the event provoked Voltaire to write his ‘Poem on the Lisbon disaster’, a
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  • The philosophy of Voltaire

    • February 9, 2019
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    • Category: Venice and Paris
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      Pretty good 26-minute lecture by Ryan Reeves on Voltaire and the Enlightenment here.   ‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is freely available here. 27 long form articles on Casanova’s life and times are freely available here.   #paris #voltaire #eighteenthcentury #history #philosophy #enlightenment
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