Dictionnaire Bouillet

The Dictionnaire Bouillet (full title: Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie, meaning "Universal Dictionary of History and Geography" in French) is a reference work in the public domain. The first edition was published in 1842, and the final (34th) edition was published in 1914. The two original authors, Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang, died in 1865 and 1878 respectively.

Cautionary note

Editions after 1852 were amended, probably clandestinely and by the typographers rather than the authors,[1] to make certain articles less offensive to Christian sensibilities.[2] For example, for Cardinal Ximenes, the original Il était fanatique et cruel ("He was fanatical and cruel") was changed to read Il était sévère, mais juste ("He was tough but fair").[3] References to sales of religious indulgences were deleted entirely.[3]

The neutrality of editions after 1842 is therefore open to question when the work touches on Christian themes.

Sources

As of July 2009, this book is in the process of being uploaded to the French wikisource here from this external source.

References

Note: These are in French.

  1. ↑ L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, 25 mars 1869, col. 149.
  2. ↑ Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1948 : .
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cited by Pierre Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, Bouillet article, 1866 edition.