
Limitless possibilities start with Dallas Public Library	kids teens adult learning volunteer job resources

Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une societé de gens de letters. 35 volumes. Paris and Amsterdam, 1751-1780.

Penmanship page from the Diderot Encyclopedia

Gift of Leon A. Harris, Jr.

This great encyclopedia, the first to include science, technology, and commerce among its subjects, had to be published secretly since it questioned many of the religious, political, and social tenants of the 18th century and antagonized the government and church hierarchy. Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rosseau, and other Enlightenment philosophers contributed articles, and seven volumes of superb copperplate engravings show the various artistic and industrial processes in remarkably beautiful images that stand on their own as works of art.

Return to History of Ideas