José R. Maia Neto - Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630–1721) and the Skeptics of His Time

This book is the main result of long research on early modern skepticism started in 1991 in Paris. It required, since then, many travels to that city to work on the books and papers which belonged to Huet preserved at the Bibliothque Nationale de France. I thank all institutions which supported this research, the library to begin with. My first research in Paris was funded by the International Society for Intellectual History. I thank (in memory) Constance Blackwell who was its founder and director at the time. I also thank the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in particular my colleagues in the Department who granted me sabbatical leaves, first to develop the research in Paris and more recently to write the book. The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfico e Tecnolgico (CNPQ); the agreement CAPES (Brazil)/COFECUB (France); the cole Pratique des Hautes tudes (EPHE-SSR), in particular professors Jean-Robert Armogathe and Hubert Bost; and the Universit Degli Studi Del Piemonte Orientale A. Avogrado, Professor Gianni Paganini in particular, also provided funds for my research in Paris and Caen. I thank Richard Popkin (in memory), April Shelford, and Alison Howell for sending me personal research materials. This book would not be possible without the research on Huet previously done by Lon Tolmer, Richard Popkin, Elena Rapetti, April Shelford, and Thomas Lennon. I thank all scholars with whom I discussed Huet and who sent me published materials on Huet: Thomas Lennon (with whom I had the privilege to give a course on Huet at UFMG), Richard Popkin and Richard Watson (in memory), April Shelford, Elena Rapetti, Gianni Paganini, Jean-Robert Armogathe, Vincent Carraud, Gilles Olivo, and Sbastien Charles. I also thank my former graduate students Flvio Loque, Bruna Martins, and Ana Cludia Teodoro, and my wife Elene Pereira Maia for continuous support and incentive. Finally, I thank two Springer reviewers for many helpful suggestions and one of them in particular for editing the whole manuscript.