Lot n° 10
Estimation :
4000 - 5000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 7 500EUR
DIDEROT (Denis) - ALEMBERT (D').
Encyclopedia,... - Lot 10 - Ader
DIDEROT (Denis) - ALEMBERT (D').
Encyclopedia, or Dictionnaire
raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, by a society of people of letters.
Paris, Neufchatel, 1751-1772 [Geneva: Cramer l'aîné et compagnie, 1771-1776]; Amsterdam: M. Rey, 1776-1777 [Supplement]; Paris: Panckoucke, Marc-Michel Rey, 1780 [Analytical table]. - 35 volumes in-folio, 392 x 253: contemporary marbled calf, triple gilt fillet framed on the plates, ornate ribbed spine, marbled edges (for volumes 1 to 17 and the 11 volumes of plates); contemporary marbled calf, ornate ribbed spine, red edges (for volumes 1, 3 and 4 of the Supplement) ; modern marbled basane, ornamented ribbed back, speckled edges (volume 2 of the Supplement) and modern marbled veal, ornamented ribbed back and
red edges (volume 5 of the Supplement and the 2 volumes of the Analytical Table).
This work is a monument of paramount importance in the history of ideas. The aim of the encyclopaedists was first and foremost to ensure the triumph of reason and modernity, at a time when, after centuries of obscurantism, there was a rebirth of intelligence. Diderot, to whom the direction of the Encyclopedia had been entrusted, devoted 20 years to this undertaking for which he made corrections, syntheses and wrote more than a thousand articles on subjects as diverse as philosophy, aesthetics, morals and mechanical arts. He was assisted in the early years by D'Alembert, who gave up publishing in 1759 after the condemnation of the encyclopaedic enterprise. The latter therefore only dealt with the mathematical part. Among the collaborators at this prestigious
company, we can mention Voltaire, Rousseau or Montesquieu.
As Adams points out: "The original edition is often confused with the Geneva counterfeit [...], and there are many copies of the Encyclopedia
consisting of volumes from both editions. This is the case here where the copy is composed as follows
:- 17 volumes of text: the first
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