Voltaire epicureo. Il mito del "Settecento libertino"

Was the Eighteenth Century truly a "libertine century"? There has always been a misunderstanding surrounding philosophical libertinism that resembles a curse: the fact that it is not taken seriously enough and is instead seen as a mere pretext for libertinage. This prejudice weighs heavily, as the volume reconstructs, even on Voltaire's very first philosophical apprenticeship, due to a series of assumptions that have never been substantiated with documentary evidence and are now taken for granted, even in historical discourse. An artistic provocation launched within critical and journalistic circles of the late nineteenth century by the writers of "petit-romantisme," the myth of the "libertine Eighteenth Century" still enjoys an undeniable yet unjustified credibility among enthusiasts of aesthetic subjects. And it continues to cause harm.