Hence, since my aim was to benefit my nation, and not to accumulate words ostentatiously in this anthology, I should put it as succinctly as possible, for all to understand and to acquire at least some idea of incomprehensible Physics.

Rigas Velestinlis

The work Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers [Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts] was published in France between 1751 and 1772, with Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert as editors. This monumental work of the European Enlightenment, with 71,818 entries and 2,885 tables, attempted to encapsulate the whole of human knowledge according to the principles of modernity.

Rigas Velestinlis included unedited translated excerpts from Encyclopédie in his work Φυσικῆς Ἀπάνθισμα [Florilegium of Physics], which he wrote during his stay in Wallachia in the late 1780s and published in Vienna in 1790. It is a popular handbook based on a compilation of French and German books. The text is structured as a dialogue between teacher and student, drawing upon the physical sciences such as astronomy, physical history, and medicine. In the end, Rigas notes that he is translating and planning to publish another significant work of modern thought, the Esprit des Lois [The Spirit of Laws] by Montesquieu. The Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Greece also safeguards the autograph manuscript of the «Φυσικῆς Ἀπάνθισμα» [Florilegium of Physics], as it was delivered to the printer, though without the few last pages. The manuscript is bound together with a copy of the printed edition and an engraving that depicts Rigas. His portrait is also included in the edition Briefe eines Augenzeugen der griechischen Revolution vom Jahre 1821 [Letters by an eyewitness in the Greek Revolution of 1821], printed in Halle in 1824.

Excerpts from the Encyclopédie, either translated in full or paraphrased as summaries, are also included in the study titled Περὶ Φιλοσόφου [Of Philosopher] by Christodoulos from Akarnania or Pamplekis. The work was printed in Vienna in 1786. His views provoked the reaction of the Patriarchate, leading to the excommunication of the author in November 1793, three months after his death. The text of his excommunication was published by Dimitrios Govdelas in his work Ὁ Ἐξωστρακισμὸς τοῦ ἀσεβοῦς Χριστοδούλου τοῦ Μονοφθάλμου τοῦ ἐξ Ἀκαρνανίας [The Ostracism of the impious Christodoulos the one-eyed of Akarnania], printed in Buda in 1800, where he says that “[…] the cunning misanthrope Demon has found, throughout the centuries, has employed the disrespectful and the godless such as Voltaire, and the Masons […] and Rousseau and Spinosa […].”