Pierre Bayle, nouvelliste de la Republique des Lettres (1684-1687)

These days, reading Pierre Bayle's Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres is about grasping the circuits that enabled the spread of ideas in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century and retracing the transformations of what was called the Republic of Letters. Bayle, who came from a provincial and modest background, knew better than anybody else how to meet the needs of an extended readership who wanted to access erudite culture without knowing its implicit codes and rules. Thus, not only does he inform the public of new publications, but he also teaches them how to read them. He thus contributes to a "democratization" of culture by familiarizing uneducated readers with the techniques of an "art of writing" that is particular to repression eras. Finally, because of its location in Holland, his journal helps to shift European culture from the south to the north.