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DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors. Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765. image 1
DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors. Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765. image 2
DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors. Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765. image 3
DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors. Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765. image 4
Lot 5

DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors.
Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765.

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DIDEROT, DENIS. 1713-1784; & JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. 1717-1783, editors.

Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. & Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts mechaniques, avec leur explication. Paris & Neuchatel: Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand & Samuel Faulche, 1751-1765.
*WITH: Nouveau dictionnaire, pour servir de supplement aux dictionnaires des sciences, des arts et des metiers.... Paris & Amsterdam: Panckoucke, Stoupe, Brunet, Rey, 1776 - 1780.
35 volumes together.
Folio (398 x 245 mm) & Supplement (390 x 242 mm). Uniformly bound in contemporary mottled calf, spine in 7 compartments, two with morocco gilt-lettered spine labels, the other with gilt floral and foliate decoration. Text leaves occasionally toned, a few scattered spots, binding with some shelfwear, joints cracked but holding on some volumes, a few instances of scrapes to boards, loss to darker of two spine labels on many of the volumes.

FIRST EDITION OF THIS LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED "MONUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN THOUGHT"(PMM).
Dderot, D'Alembert and a team of 150 other contributing intellectuals produced this reference that sought to disseminate all of the world's knowledge. The work is a time capsule into the workings of industry and the mechanical arts, science, the fine arts and a secularization of learning.
But the publication was extremely controversial: "Each volume as it appeared caused a sensation throughout Europe. The court, the church, the judiciary were outraged; the number of subscribers, originally one thousand, rose to four thousand. In 1759, the seven volumes so far published were banned by the French Attorney-General and condemned by the Pope" (PMM). The had to be clandestinely published thereafter, eventually moving to Amsterdam with publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke.

The present set in contemporary bindings is cleaner and in better condition than is often found. An essential title in every library covering the history of science. Grolier/Horblit. One Hundred Books Famous in Science. 25b; Printing and the Mind of Man 200.

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