was an encyclopedia originally compiled by the Catholic priest and theologian

Louis Moréri Louis Moréri (25 March 1643 – 10 July 1680) was a French priest and encyclopedist. Life Moréri was born in 1643 in Bargemon, a village in the ancient province of Provence. His great-grandfather, Joseph Chatranet, a native of Dijon, had set ...

(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

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

s. In addition to being successful in its own right, Moréri’s served as a springboard and foil for

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Histori ...

’s (1697). Moréri’s 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.Arnold Miller, "Louis Moréri’s ," In ''Notable Encyclopedias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Nine Predecessors of the Encyclopédie'', ed. Frank A. Kafker (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1981), 13-52. Online availability
Dictionnaire de Moréri
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also here

References

{{reflist French encyclopedias 1674 books 17th-century encyclopedias