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Diderot's Encyclopedia |
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| Diderot and D'Alembert, Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia, or a systematic dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts), 1752-1776. A masterpiece of the Enlightment, it set out all the knowledge of the day, and was a first attempt to document the techniques of mechanical production for objects used in everyday life. Scholars from around the world, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson submitted chapters.
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, and man of letters, and the chief editor of the L'Encyclopédie. He was a friend of the great minds of his age including Goethe, Rousseau, and Hume. A freethinker, Diderot challenged the authority of the Church and criticized the French system of government. In 1751 the first volume was published and it included many forward-thinking ideas for the time. Diderot wanted to give all people the ability to further their knowledge and, in a sense, allow every person to have any knowledge they sought of the world. Knowledge and power, two key items the upper class held over the lower class, were in jeopardy as knowledge would be more accessible, giving way to more power amongst the lower class. An encyclopedia would give the layman an ability to reason and use knowledge to better themselves; allowing for upward mobility and increased intellectual abundance amongst the lower class. The Encyclopedia was plagued by controversy from the beginning; the project was suspended by the courts in 1752. Just as the second volume was completed accusations arose, regarding seditious content, concerning the editor's entries on religion and natural law. Finally the work was continued but Diderot encountered harassment, persecution and desertion of friends. The Encyclopédie threatened the governing social classes of France because it took for granted the justice of religious tolerance, freedom of thought, and the value of science and industry. It asserted the doctrine that the main concern of the nation's government ought to be the nation's common people. It was believed that the Encyclopédie was the work of an organized band of conspirators against society, and that the dangerous ideas they held were made truly formidable by their open publication. In 1759, the Encyclopédie was formally suppressed. The decree did not stop the work, however its difficulties increased since it had to be continued clandestinely. D'Alembert withdrew from the enterprise and Diderot was left to finish the task alone. The last copies of the first volume were issued in 1765. At the last moment, when his immense work was drawing to an end, he encountered a crowning mortification: he discovered that the bookseller, fearing the government's displeasure, had struck out from the proof sheets, after they had left Diderot's hands, all passages that he considered too dangerous. The monument to which Diderot had given the labor of twenty long and oppressive years was irreparably mutilated and defaced. It was another twelve years, in 1772, before the subscribers received the final 27 folio volumes of the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. These finely-engraved are from the natural history section of the massive work. Size (in): 15.5 x 10 |
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