Henri Basnage de Beauval
Henri Basnage de Beauval (7 August 1656 – April 1710) was a French Huguenot lawyer, controversist and lexicographer, known also as a journal editor. Life. He was born at Rouen, son of the advocate Henri Basnage de Franquesnay and brother of Jacques Basnage. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he made some attempts to stay in France, but left for Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1687. He died in The Hague. Works. He wrote "Tolérance des religions", published by Henri de Græff at Rotterdam in 1684; it was a plea to French Catholics for religious  tolerance. His "Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans" was a periodical appearing from 1687 to 1709; it was a sequel to the "Nouvelles de la République des Lettres" of Pierre Bayle, who had sheltered him and his brother Jacques. The change of title was in fact cosmetic, to avoid trouble with the publisher of the "Nouvelles". Basnage himself did almost all the editorial, and the reviews of John Locke's works, in particular, did much to spread his ideas. He worked over the "Dictionnaire universel" of Antoine Furetière, producing an expanded edition; it went through numerous editions, before being taken up  by Jean Brutel de la Rivière (1727, The Hague). Basnage's version was considered "Protestant"; the Jesuits of the "Mémoires de Trévoux" found heresy in articles where they considered he had introduced a Protestant view. Basnage defended himself in the "Journal des sçavans", but the Jesuits went ahead with an expurgated edition, a model for the "Dictionnaire de Trévoux". Basnage's lexicographical approach was in fact more descriptive than normative. Under the pseudonym Le Fèvre, Basnage also wrote the "Lettre sur les differends de M. Jurieu & de M. Bayle." His publications were: