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