Throughout the 17th century, there is mention of the sacrilegious treatise De Tribus Impostoribus, but only at the beginning of the next century are the first Latin and French copies found. Until then, the nebulous reputation of the work has traced an outrageous trajectory, with the most diverse historical figures appearing as its authors: Baron d'Holbach, as well as Rabelais, Campanella, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Boccaccio, or even Averroes and Frederick Barbarossa. Thus emerges one of the most impressive literary legends of the modern era, reminiscent in many aspects of Borges' fictional games. This sharp, sarcastic libel of popular Enlightenment is a frontal attack against the three great prophets and administrators of the supposed divine Word, founders of the religions that constitute the horizon of modern European culture. The teachings about God and the soul summarized here often "photograph" the iconoclastic zeal of the Encyclopedia. However, they also trace back to a much broader "secret" tradition of Western thought, extending from Empedocles to Giordano Bruno and Spinoza, and from European and Arabic alchemy to the boldest versions of the new science. Conversely, in the historical extension of such rhetorical violence, it is not difficult to discern the fiery monologues of Sade's profane characters or the relentless polemic that Nietzsche would unleash in the Antichrist. [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]