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
- Fig. 1. The Bullfrog. Fig. 2. The Surinam Toad.
- Fig. 1. Blue and Yellow Macaw. Fig. 2. Cockatoo. Fig. 3. Ambon King Parrot. Fig. 4. Lory of the Philippines.
- Sea Shells
- Insects
- The Flea Viewed under a Microscope
- Fig. 1. Cacao Tree. Fig. 2. Cinnamon.
- Ribbon Loom
- Coachmaker
- Sketch of an Oar-Propelled Galley Named la Réale
- Workshop of the Foundry and Casting the Figure in Bronze
- Fish Trap, Perspective View
- Perspective View of Piedmont Mills
- Workshop and Various Operations for the Dyeing of Silks
- Cooper
- Spirits Distiller
- Tools
- Farrier and Horseshoe Repairman, Forge Work and Tools
- The Art of Writing
- Balance Maker
- Heraldry
- Heraldry
- Laboratory
- Cloth Making
- Pieces
- Weight-Driven Alarm Clock
- Cross-Sectional View of the Forge with Two Furnaces and Plan of the Foundation of the Hammer Frame
- Press
- Manufacture of Tobacco
- Fig. 1. The Temple of Jupiter the Avenger or the Pantheon of Agrippa. Fig. 2. Hadrian’s Tomb.
- Windmill Used to Saw Stones into Slabs
- Astronomy
- Hydraulics, Noria
- Work with Gold and Silver
- Kitchen Garden
- Cider Press
- Manufacture of the Mold
- Fencing
- Brilliants
- Reheating the Bottle and Cleaning of the Glass That Remains around the Rod after the Bottle Is Made
- Exterior View
- Pieces
- Machine to Treat Precious Metals Sweepings
- Letterpress Printing, Using the Type Case
- Precious Metal Jewelry Goldsmith
- Atelier, Palettes and Paintbrushes
- Method to Set Up the Pattern in the Back
- The Art of Writing
- Polish-Style Bed, Turkish-Style Bed and Bed in an Alcove. Details.
- Furniture, Armchair, Chair, Ottoman
- Cloth Making