Also known as:
French: Comte de Boulainvilliers, Henri de Boulainvilliers
BOULAINVILLIERS, Henri, Count of. - Born at St-Saire (Normandy) on 11 Oct. 1658, died in Paris on 23 Jan. 1722. A curious figure of historian, politician, and astrologer. A supporter of the feudal idea against the monarchical one and of the myth of the superiority of the Germans; substantially Spinozist, behind an only apparent reverence for Christianity, he is one of the most skillful de-Christianizers of his time.
In La vie de Mahomed, posthumous (2nd ed., Amsterdam 1731), taking up again the concept of the "nobility" of Islam already affirmed by a group of Arabists, he arrives at delineating the figure of Muhammad as the implementer of a natural and humanistic religion: according to B. the religion of Muhammad knows how to reconcile nature with law, whereas Christianity is not only against nature but is also unnatural; with his idea of the impossibility of the existence of any religion that is not exclusively natural, he seeks to undermine the concept of positive religion and that of the Christian revealed religion. This myth of Muhammad has a fundamental importance in rationalistic and deistic France and is linked to a whole other series of myths (for example, the height of the natural morality of the Chinese with the related affirmation of the uselessness of Revelation).
Bibliography2 worksR. Simon, Un révolté du Grand Siècle, Garches 1948; M. Petrocchi, Il mito di Maometto in B., in Riv. Stor. Ital., 60 (1948), pp. 367-77 and
BIBL.: R. Simon, Un révolté du Grand Siècle, Garches 1948; M. Petrocchi, Il mito di Maometto in B., in Riv. Stor. Ital., 60 (1948), pp. 367-77 and the bibliography cited there.
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Boulainvilliers, henri, conte di.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, col. 1981. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/boulainvilliers-henri-conte-di.
MLA
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Boulainvilliers, henri, conte di.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, col. 1981. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/boulainvilliers-henri-conte-di.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec2_boulainvilliers_henri_conte_di,
author = {Petrocchi, Massimo},
title = {Boulainvilliers, henri, conte di},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {II},
pages = {1981},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/boulainvilliers-henri-conte-di}
}
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