Seventeenth Century Atheists

17th Century

Clandestina

The first atheist texts in Europe are generally referred to as the clandestina or clandestine literature, about 200 examples of which survive. These texts were predominantly (although not exclusively) francophone and can be dated from approximately the mid-seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth century. These almost exclusively anonymous manuscripts were circulated mainly in handwritten form and consequently escaped censorship. Most of the main atheist arguments of the French radical Enlightenment are anticipated in the clandestina.

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