Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach

Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789), was a French philosopher of the Enlightenment, born in the Palatinate in Germany. Heir to his uncle's fortune and title, he settled in Paris, where his dinners on the rue Royale gathered Diderot, Grimm, Helvétius and visiting foreigners such as Hume and Franklin. He contributed hundreds of articles on chemistry, mineralogy and other subjects to the Encyclopédie and translated German scientific works. Under false names he published a stream of attacks on religion, including Christianity Unveiled and The System of Nature (1770), a systematic defense of atheism and materialism.