Histoire des Celtes

...correcting original catchword was "riger", part of "corriger", as well as the errors of Language, which might well stem only from the lack of skill of the Printer. Despite all my attention, I would not dare to flatter myself that none have escaped.

There are several Writings against the History of the Celts, and the Author made Replies to them. I have collected them with care. This precaution will contribute to raising the merit of this Edition.

It would not be easy to obtain all the Books that served in the composition of this History. I therefore believed that I would please the Public by having the Texts that are cited therein printed. Mr. Deleurye, Regular Canon of the Abbey of Saint Victor, helped me greatly in these researches. He has a decided taste for this type of work.

I hope that the Public will be equally satisfied with the Typographical correction and the beauty of the Paper.

An ornamental printer's device features a central urn or vase with floral motifs and scrolling foliage.

Simon Pelloutier, Pastor of the French Church of Berlin, Counselor of the Superior Consistory, Member and Librarian of the Royal Academy, was born in Leipzig, on October 27, old style, 1694. His father, Jean Pelloutier, a Merchant of that City, was born in Lyon. Languedoc had been the Fatherland of Françoise Claparéde, his mother.

It was recognized early on that the young Pelloutier had a disposition for Studies; they were cultivated. He did his Humanités Humanities or classical studies at the College of Halle, and passed through all his Classes with rapidity. The career of Academic Studies followed; by the age of 18, he was sufficiently formed, as much in terms of knowledge as in terms of manners, to fill a position of trust with which he was charged; he was elected Governor of the Sons of the Prince of Montbéliard; it was with them that Mr. Pelloutier passed the years 1712 and 1713 in Geneva. He took advantage of this stay to do his Course of Theology under the celebrated Alphonse Turretin (*) and Bénédict Pictet ($).

Before the end of 1713, Mr. Pelloutier

(*) The Abbé Ladvocat and the Author who wrote the critique of his Dictionary have said nothing of Simon Pelloutier. The New Dictionary, which appeared under the name of a Society of Men of Letters, makes no more mention of him; this is a proof that all these Lexicographers were not universal enough in Literature to give an idea of Civil and Literary History. One will readily admit that the Authors of the New Dictionary have corrected very essential defects found either in the Work of the Abbé Ladvocat or in the Critical Dictionary; but, at the same time, one dares to assert that the Authors of this new Lexicon, which is very useful and generally well-made, have omitted a very great number of Articles that would have adorned their Work, and which deserved a place there more than the great number of those who compose it. The Public would have, no doubt, seen with pleasure in this Dictionary the name of Paul-Charles Larry, Doctor Regent of the Faculty of Law in Paris, where he died on December 3, 1766. But our Lexicographers know neither the Works of this Learned Professor, nor the personal merit of this skillful Jurist.

($) Jean-Alphonse Turretin was a Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Geneva. We have from him Sermons, Harangues, Dissertations, and various other Writings; but one distinguishes among his Works an Abridgment of Ecclesiastical History of which the first Edition appeared in 1734 and the second two years later.