LUZAC, Elie

(1721–1796)

   Of French Huguenotdescent, Luzac was a publisher in the city of Leiden, where his uncle Jean Luzac (1702–1789) published the famous Gazette de Leyde. Elie Luzac was a strong advocate of the freedom of the press. As a journalist and po litical theorist, he was an adherent of a moderate, Protestant kind of Enlightenment. His rationalist and tolerant perspective prevented him in the 1780s from subscribing to the radical democraticideas of the so-called Patriots. Rietje (Maria) van Vliet wrote an extensive bi ography of him, Elie Luzac (1721–1796): Boekverkoper van de Ver lichting [Book-Seller of the Enlightenment, 2005].