Abstract

Based on two French authors from the end of the 17th century, this paper aims to highlight how the scholars themselves use the practice of criticism to represent a controversial aspect of knowledge associated with the gradually greater diffusion of books in the public dimension. This characteristic of knowledge together with this new social condition creates a specifically modern requirement that associates freedom of thought not only with private thought, but also with the exercise of writing and the access to books of the most diverse contents. On the other hand, this new disposition of the Republic of Letters raises questionsamong critics themselves about the limits or regulatory criteria of criticism.