When we suggested that he should use the funds generously provided by the Balzan Foundation so that he could prepare the Dictionnaire critique de l’utopie au temps des Lumières, Bronisław Baczko received the idea with great enthusiasm. The task was similar to the memorable enterprise of the Dictionnaire critique de la Révolution française (Paris: Flammarion, 1988) edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf, with significant contributions from Bronisław (the articles «Lumières», «Thermidoriens», and «Vandalisme»). After three and a half years of constant, intense work, we had the good fortune of being able to present the Dictionnaire hot off the presses of the GEORG publishing house in Geneva on 13 June 2016, Bronisław’s ninety-third birthday. 1,400 pages, fifty-four articles (as many as the cities on Thomas More’s island of Utopia), 143 illustrations, forty-six contributors from eight different countries, a tightly knit team (Bronisław said he had never worked more in tune with other colleagues), and an effective one as well, thanks in particular to the impeccable work of Mirjana Farkas, a modern history specialist by training, who stepped in as editorial assistant and art director and who, on completion of the dictionary, also benefited from the precious assistance of her colleague, modern historian Robin Majeur.
