Pierre Bayle was one of the most important sceptical thinkers of the seventeenth century. His work was a major influence on the development of the ideas of Voltaire (who acclaimed it for its candour on such subjects as atheism, obscenity and sexual conduct), Hume, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Banned in[...]

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, travel literature became increasingly popular and influential in Europe, as more people travelled and brought back tales from far-off lands. The Far East, in particular China, came very much to the fore at the end of the seventeenth century and provide[...]