Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une societé [sic] de gens de lettres. Mis en ordre & publié par M. Diderot [...]; & quant à la partie mathematique [sic], par M. d'Alembert [...].

DIDEROT, Denis, ALEMBERT, D'

€ 12.000 / 15.000

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Lot description

Paris, Briasson, David l'aîné, Le Breton & Durand (vol. I-VII & pl. vol.); Neufchâtel, S. Faulche & compagnie (VIII-XVII) [= Geneva, G. Cramer and S. de Tournes for C.-J. Panckoucke], 1751-1772 [= 1770-1776]

29 vol., folio (n.c., some foxing and soiling, occ. (mostly light) waterstaining, usual toning, front. loose).

Contemp. mottled calf, gilt-orn. spines with labels, red edges (corners ± dulled, some covers with sm. scratches, spines & joints sl. rubbed, a few joints starting to split, heads & tails rubbed or def., 2 spines repaired). In general, a good set.

First folio reprint of the Encyclopédie, printed during the 1770s in Geneva for Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, with the consent of the original's main printer-bookseller André François Le Breton. Copy with the same dates and imprints as the Paris original edition (1751-1772), containing the full 17 vol. of text and 11 vol. of plates, and with the only published suppl. vol. of plates, in first ed.: "Suite du recueil de planches [...]". Paris, Panckoucke, Stoupe, Brunet; Amsterdam, M.M. Rey, 1777 (in contemp. binding, but sl. different from the others). The 11 vol. of plates have 2.569 engr. pl. (full-page, double-page or folding), the suppl. vol. of plates has 212 engr. pl. (full-page or double-page), totalling 2.781 engr. pl. (of 2796?). As far as the plate number of the Geneva reprint is certain, 15 pl. are not present, i.a. 10 in vol. III ("Dessein") and 3 in suppl. vol. ("Hermaphrodites"). Vol. I with the folding table "Systeme figure des connoissances humaines" and loose front. after Cochin (1764) and engr. by Prevost (1776; orig. 1772). Our copy without the 2 vol. of tables (1780) and the 4 vol. of text supplement (1776-1777). "A monument in the history of European thought; the acme of the age of reason; a prime motive force in undermining the ancien régime and in heralding the French Revolution; a permanent source for all aspects of eighteenth-c. civilization [...] The Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert remained, and remains, unique" (PMM). After the Geneva reprint, various ed. were publ. in various formats, in Lucca, Livorno, Lausanne, etc.
Ref. Lough, 15-21. - Cp. Printing and the mind of man 200, En français dans le texte 156.