Paul Henry Thiry, Baron d'Holbach was born in 1723 in the German city of Edesheim. As a child, and his mother having died, he moved to Paris to be adopted by a maternal uncle named Franz Adam Holbach. From this he inherited both the title of baron and a considerable fortune. His entry into the Parisian world of letters occurred around 1750, when he met the philosopher Denis Diderot, who was then preparing the second volume of the Encyclopédie. D’Holbach helped Diderot with money to continue this endeavor and with the composition of more than four hundred articles on subjects ranging from chemistry and mineralogy to metaphysics and political philosophy. They also agreed with the philosopher in many aspects, particularly in the conviction that the Christian religion was an obstacle to human progress that had to be removed. He died in Paris six months before the French Revolution, on January 21, 1789.