Encyclopaedia or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts
Edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert

Published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. Originally sold by subscription.

Size: First edition: 28 volumes in folio size (17 of text and 11 of graphics); over 140 (named) contributors, 71,818 articles, 3,129 illustrations from engraved, 20,8 million words, 18,000 pages of text.

Scope: It is an attempt to encompass and classify all of human knowledge, from both its theory and practice, and to make the results available to all readers, present and future. Although far from perfect, it became one of the most important intellectual and social achievements of its time.

Purpose: According to Denis Diderot in the article “Encyclopédie”, the Encyclopédie’s aim was “to change the way people think.”

Knowledge was understood and organized in a scheme known as the “Figurative System of Human Knowledge” (known as the Tree of Diderot and d’Alembert), inspired by Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning. Knowledge was structured into three main branches: Memory (history); Reason (Philosophy, which included theology); Imagination (poetry).

Diderot understood science to be “a system of rules or facts relative to a certain object” (Diderot’s Prospectus, quoted by Pannabecker).

Its contributors included “150 of Europe’s best intellectuals: Jean-Jacques Rousseau [wrote] 400 articles, many of them on music for which he received no payment. Voltaire wrote over 40; Diderot himself wrote over 5,000 articles and made a significant contribution to the descriptions of arts and manufactures” (Lyons 107). Louis de Jaucourt wrote 17,266 articles between 1759 and 1765, or about eight per day, representing a full 25% of the Encyclopédie, with a team of secretaries whom he paid himself.

“More than an encyclopedia, it was a manifesto for the rational thinking and social criticism of the Age of Enlightenment. It aimed to disseminate up-to-date knowledge of scientific inventions and the practical arts, making new ideas and procedures accessible to any educated reader. It also attacked prejudice and tradition, and put social and political institutions under the microscope, promoting liberal economic policies, and an end to royal monopolies. It questioned the historical truth of the Bible, the reality of miracles, and the Resurrection, and the principle of priestly celibacy. It attacked the parasitical position of the aristocracy, and defended individual property rights as the foundation of society. In 1752, after the publication of the second volume, the monarchy banned it, but this did not deter the editors who continued the project with the tacit approval of figures close to the crown, such as Madame de Pompadour” (Lyons 107).

“Universally popular and utterly comprehensive, the Encyclopédie was emblematic of the Enlightenment way of thinking. Emphasis throughout the work was placed on man’s reason, with religious orthodoxy relegated to the ranks of the mystical and superstitious. Naturally, not everyone read this with favor. Among those readers who found Diderot’s efforts heretical and dangerous were the Jesuits, the King’s Council, the General Assembly of the Clergy, and Parisian city officials, all of whom denounced the work. In 1759, it was placed on the official Index of Forbidden Books, from which position it only gained in popularity, as banned books often did” (Howard 109).

It was the first encyclopedia to include articles from many named contributors, and it was the first general encyclopedia to lavish attention on the mechanical arts. Diderot conceptualized, systematized and represented knowledge, and represented the state of mechanical arts in the Enlightenment in two-dimensional form, for the purpose of dissemination. “Many persons considered it best to maintain secrecy over knowledge of the mechanical arts, especially the most advanced and those geared to luxury trade (Pannabecker).

Bibliography for both hand-outs
Howard, Nicole. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. [2005] 2009.
Lyons, Martyn. Books: A Living History.
Morley, John. Diderot and the Encylopaedists. 1878.
Pannabecker, John R. “Diderot, the Mechanical Arts, and the Encyclopédie: In Search of the Heritage of Technology Education” Journal of Technology Education. Fall 1994. 6.1.
Roberts, J.M. The New History of the World. 2003.