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A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry
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Artists, illustrators, collectors, and historians of industry, art, and invention will all welcome this superb republication of copperplates engraved to illustrate Diderot's great eighteenth-century Encyclopédie. The first work of its kind, the Encyclopédie was the crowning venture of the Enlightenment. In this two-volume set, available for the first time in a paperbound edition, Dover has painstakingly reprinted 485 of the finest plates — considered among the greatest achievements of eighteenth-century graphic art — most in full size.
Diderot committed his encyclopedia to publicizing trade secrets in the hope it would lead to more rational industrial processes. The plates offer, therefore, a unique and invaluable record of manufacturing and the trades just prior to the Industrial Revolution. Each of the major trades is illustrated in sequences detailing machinery and processes from raw material to finished product. In fact, most plates are so clear and accurate that an engineer could almost use them to construct machines ready to go into eighteenth-century production. Moreover, the variety of arts, crafts, tools, and trades illustrated here is staggering: 56 plates on agriculture and the rural arts; 40 plates dealing with the iron foundry; 44 plates on metalworking; 67 plates on glassmaking; 28 plates showing masonry and carpentry; 55 plates dealing with textiles; and scores of others amount to a total of more than 2,000 illustrations.
This inexpensive edition will serve libraries, students, and teachers as a primary reference on Europe before the Industrial Revolution. In addition, commercial artists, designers, and crafters will find here a wealth of unusual, royalty-free illustrations for a host of art and craft uses.
Extensive, detailed notes, prepared by historian Charles Coulston Gillispie, clearly identify and explain objects, procedures, and techniques of each industry. Mr. Gillispie's Introduction is an extensive essay on the place of the encyclopedia in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.
Diderot committed his encyclopedia to publicizing trade secrets in the hope it would lead to more rational industrial processes. The plates offer, therefore, a unique and invaluable record of manufacturing and the trades just prior to the Industrial Revolution. Each of the major trades is illustrated in sequences detailing machinery and processes from raw material to finished product. In fact, most plates are so clear and accurate that an engineer could almost use them to construct machines ready to go into eighteenth-century production. Moreover, the variety of arts, crafts, tools, and trades illustrated here is staggering: 56 plates on agriculture and the rural arts; 40 plates dealing with the iron foundry; 44 plates on metalworking; 67 plates on glassmaking; 28 plates showing masonry and carpentry; 55 plates dealing with textiles; and scores of others amount to a total of more than 2,000 illustrations.
This inexpensive edition will serve libraries, students, and teachers as a primary reference on Europe before the Industrial Revolution. In addition, commercial artists, designers, and crafters will find here a wealth of unusual, royalty-free illustrations for a host of art and craft uses.
Extensive, detailed notes, prepared by historian Charles Coulston Gillispie, clearly identify and explain objects, procedures, and techniques of each industry. Mr. Gillispie's Introduction is an extensive essay on the place of the encyclopedia in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.
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Genres
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1993
This edition
- Format
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239 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 1993 by Dover Publications
- ISBN
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9780486274287
- ASIN
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0486274284
- Language
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English
About the author
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Work on the Encyclopédie (1751-1772), supreme accomplishment of French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot, epitomized the spirit of thought of Enlightenment; he also wrote novels, plays, critical essays, and brilliant letters to a wide circle of friends and colleagues.
Jean le Rond d'Alembert contributed.
This artistic prominent persona served as best known co-founder, chief editor, and contributor.
He also contributed notably to literature with Jacques le fataliste et son maître (Jacques the Fatalist and his Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding structure and content, while also examining ideas about free will. Diderot also authored of the known dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau's Nephew), basis of many articles and sermons about consumer desire. His articles included many topics.
Diderot speculated on free will, held a completely materialistic view of the universe, and suggested that heredity determines all human behavior. He therefore warned his fellows against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress. He rejected the idea of progress. His opinion doomed the aim of progressing through technology to fail. He founded on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox. He discreetly but firmly refuted technical errors and personal positions of d'Alembert on probability.
Jean le Rond d'Alembert contributed.
This artistic prominent persona served as best known co-founder, chief editor, and contributor.
He also contributed notably to literature with Jacques le fataliste et son maître (Jacques the Fatalist and his Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding structure and content, while also examining ideas about free will. Diderot also authored of the known dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau's Nephew), basis of many articles and sermons about consumer desire. His articles included many topics.
Diderot speculated on free will, held a completely materialistic view of the universe, and suggested that heredity determines all human behavior. He therefore warned his fellows against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress. He rejected the idea of progress. His opinion doomed the aim of progressing through technology to fail. He founded on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox. He discreetly but firmly refuted technical errors and personal positions of d'Alembert on probability.
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