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Johan Adler Salvius’ Questions to Baruch de Castro concerning De tribus impostoribus

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Book cover Heterodoxy, Spinozism, and Free Thought in Early-Eighteenth-Century Europe

Abstract

As de jure divino notions of monarchy were increasingly assaulted in the courts of seventeenth-century Europe, charges of political impostorship became more commonplace. Foremost in this clandestine tradition was a manuscript of utmost heresy, De tribus impostoribus (On the three impostors), in which it was argued that Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed had established a rule of political fraud. Some of the most important surviving material related to this literary tradition can be traced to Scandanavian sources, in particular the cultural milieux of the University of Greifswald in Swedish Pomerania and the Academy of Kiel in Danish Schleswig-Holstein. The literary origin of this Latin work seems to be quite distinct from that ascribed to the later French work Le Traité des trois imposteurs. This paper will present evidence for the distinctiveness of the two traditions of imposture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Stockholm, Sweden

    Susanna Åkerman

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  1. Susanna Åkerman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rome, Italy

    Silvia Berti

  2. Centre Nationale de Recherches Scientifiques, France

    Françoise Charles-Daubert

  3. Washington University, St. Louis, USA

    Richard H. Popkin

  4. University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Richard H. Popkin

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Åkerman, S. (1996). Johan Adler Salvius’ Questions to Baruch de Castro concerning De tribus impostoribus. In: Berti, S., Charles-Daubert, F., Popkin, R.H. (eds) Heterodoxy, Spinozism, and Free Thought in Early-Eighteenth-Century Europe. International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Idées, vol 148. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8735-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8735-8_14

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