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Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (), was a French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate, but lived and worked mainly in Paris, where he kept a ''salon''. He was well known for his atheism and for his voluminous writings against religion, the most famous of them being ''The System of Nature'' (1770). ==Biography== Sources differ regarding d'Holbach's dates of birth and death. His exact birthday is unknown, although records show that he was baptised on 8 December 1723. Some authorities incorrectly give June 1789 as the month of his death. D’Holbach's mother Catherine Jacobina née Holbach (1684–1743) was the daughter of Johannes Jacobus Holbach (died 1723) the Prince-Bishop's tax collector for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer. His father, Johann Jakob Dietrich, (with other notations: ger.: ''Johann Jakob Dirre''; fr.: ''Jean Jacques Thiry'') (1672–1756) was a wine-grower. D’Holbach wrote nothing of his childhood though it is known he was raised in Paris by his uncle Franz Adam Holbach, (or ''Adam François d’Holbach'' or ''Messire François-Adam, Baron d’Holbach, Seigneur de Heeze, Leende et autres Lieux'')〔Cushing, Max Pearson: ''Baron D’holbach A Study Of Eighteenth Century Radicalism.'' Kessinger Pub. Co. (2004), p.5〕 (approx. 1675–1753), who had become a millionaire by speculating on the Paris stock-exchange. With his financial support, d’Holbach attended the Leiden University from 1744 to 1748. Here he became friends with John Wilkes. Later he went on to marry his second cousin, Basile-Geneviève d'Aine (1728–1754), on 11 December 1750. In 1753, a son was born: Francois Nicholas who left France before his father passed. Francois moved through Germany, Holland, and England before arriving in USA (per American family bible/German and Italian references). In 1753 both his uncle and his father died, leaving d'Holbach with an enormous inheritance, such as Heeze Castle, ''Kasteel Heeze te Heeze''. D’Holbach would remain wealthy throughout his life.〔Michael LeBuffe, "Paul-Henri Thiry (Baron) d’Holbach", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Summer 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)()〕 In 1754, his wife died from an unknown disease. The distraught d’Holbach moved to the provinces for a brief period with his friend Baron Grimm and in the following year received a special dispensation from the Pope to marry his deceased wife's sister, Charlotte-Suzanne d’Aine (1733–1814).〔Max Pearson Cushing, (''Baron d’Holbach: A Study of Eighteenth Century Radicalism in France'' )〕 They had a son, Charles-Marius (1757–1832) and two daughters Amélie-Suzanne (13 January 1759) and Louise-Pauline (19 December 1759 – 1830). During the summer months, when Paris was hot and humid, Baron d'Holbach retreated to his country estate at Grandval, ''Le Château de Grand-Val''〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Old photograph of the in 1949 destroyed building. )〕 (Sucy-en-Brie today ''N° 27 rue du Grand-Val'' on the outskirts of Paris (Département Val-de-Marne).〔Cushing, Max Pearson: ''Baron D’holbach A Study Of Eighteenth Century Radicalism.'' Kessinger Pub. Co. (2004), p.11〕 There he would invite friends to stay for a few days or weeks, and every year he invited Denis Diderot.〔Blom, Philipp: ''A Wicked Company. The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment.'' Basic Books, New York, (2010), p. 181, ISBN 978-0-465-01453-8.〕 D'Holbach was known for his generosity, often providing financial support discreetly or anonymously to his friends, amongst them Diderot. It is thought that the virtuous atheist Wolmar in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ''Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse'' is based on d'Holbach.〔 Holbach died in Paris on 21 January 1789, a few months before the French Revolution.〔Sources differ regarding d'Holbach's dates of birth and death. His exact birthday is unknown, although records show that he was baptised on 8 December 1723. Some authorities incorrectly give June 1789 as the month of his death.〕 The authorship of his various anti-religious works did not become widely known until the early 19th century. Ironically, he was buried in the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris. The exact location of the grave is unknown.〔Blom, Philipp: ''A Wicked Company. The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment.'' Basic Books, New York, (2010), p. 302, ISBN 978-0-465-01453-8.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baron d'Holbach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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