Itinerari libertini tra Parigi e Vienna. L’abate Lenglet du Fresnoy dalla storia erudita all’ermetismo

Abstract

Between XVII and XVIII centuries, along Europe, the libertine culture assimilates new natural philosophy’s laical and rational achievements . Indeed, on one side it delves into the ancient Pyrrhonism’s points; in the same time and on the other side it considers the Hermeticism’s Renaissance legacy. This is an erudite and daring operation, which is against the tide and disparaging of ecclesiastical bans. Prime movers were key people as John Toland and Anglo-Dutch free-thinkers, Eugene Prince of Savoy and his intendant Baron Hohendorf, Pietro Giannone and – in Paris – abbot Lenglet du Fresnoy. The abbot, prolific writer and reader, easily moves from his first period studies about French history – in keeping with the European erudition over Deism and radical Enlightenment – to the rescue of magical – hermetical tradition in his last years. His own extensive literary work, known but never fully analyzed, is important and valuable.