A World of Things: Denis Diderot Coloring Book

With their Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts), editors Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert set out to map the scope of human knowledge. Published between 1751 and 1772, the encyclopedia’s 28 volumes tackled subjects from chemistry and philosophy to botany and bookbinding. Contributors, including philosophers Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, espoused such Enlightenment values as empiricism and secularism, making the encyclopedia controversial in its time.

The illustrations in this book are from a copy of the Encyclopédie owned by Gouverneur Morris, who served as a delegate at the Continental Congress and, later, as United States ambassador to France. Morris authored the preamble to the US Constitution, a document heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. Morris’s copy of the Encyclopédie is held in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the world’s largest and most eclectic library, the Library of Congress, which holds materials in more than 470 languages. The Library’s French collection, alone, comprises approximately one million items.

Images

1. Fig. 1. The Bullfrog. Fig. 2. The Surinam Toad.
2. Fig. 1. Blue and Yellow Macaw. Fig. 2. Cockatoo. Fig. 3. Ambon King Parrot. Fig. 4. Lory of the Philippines.
3. Sea Shells
4. Insects
5. The Flea Viewed under a Microscope
6. Fig. 1. Cacao Tree. Fig. 2. Cinnamon.
7. Ribbon Loom
8. Coachmaker
9. Sketch of an Oar-Propelled Galley Named la Réale
10. Workshop of the Foundry and Casting the Figure in Bronze
11. Fish Trap, Perspective View
12. Perspective View of Piedmont Mills
13. Workshop and Various Operations for the Dyeing of Silks
14. Cooper
15. Spirits Distiller
16. Tools
17. Farrier and Horseshoe Repairman, Forge Work and Tools
18. The Art of Writing
19. Balance Maker
20. Heraldry
21. Heraldry
22. Laboratory
23. Cloth Making
24. Pieces
25. Weight-Driven Alarm Clock
26. Cross-Sectional View of the Forge with Two Furnaces and Plan of the Foundation of the Hammer Frame
27. Press
28. Manufacture of Tobacco
29. Fig. 1. The Temple of Jupiter the Avenger or the Pantheon of Agrippa. Fig. 2. Hadrian’s Tomb.
30. Windmill Used to Saw Stones into Slabs
31. Astronomy
32. Hydraulics, Noria
33. Work with Gold and Silver
34. Kitchen Garden
35. Cider Press
36. Manufacture of the Mold
37. Fencing
38. Brilliants
39. Reheating the Bottle and Cleaning of the Glass That Remains around the Rod after the Bottle Is Made
40. Exterior View
41. Pieces
42. Machine to Treat Precious Metals Sweepings
43. Letterpress Printing, Using the Type Case
44. Precious Metal Jewelry Goldsmith
45. Atelier, Palettes and Paintbrushes
46. Method to Set Up the Pattern in the Back
47. The Art of Writing
48. Polish-Style Bed, Turkish-Style Bed and Bed in an Alcove. Details.
49. Furniture, Armchair, Chair, Ottoman
50. Cloth Making