When I was a kid one, of the more fun moments of learning was the ability to get my hands on a nice set of encyclopedia books. Since no world wide web existed it was truly the only way to easily browse new subjects or to gain more background in ones where I already held an interest. The two main sets that I would tend to have access to were Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book. While many of the entries were well written and illustrated, most tended to be short and dictionary-like. Being a kid, I never thought about how what I was reading came to be.
Years ago, during a holiday season, I walked into The Antiquarium in Houston looking for a gift. They had many awesome antiquarian pieces to look at and I immediately gravitated to the antique prints of machinery, musical instruments, weaponry, botany, and scientific drawings. I knew I had seen these etchings in some form or fashion in prior years, but had no knowledge of their back stories. The store manager stopped by and proceeded to give me a free lesson as to what I was looking at, and the larger role they played in a free and open society. At this point, I had enough information to go find out more about it.
Encyclopedias have been around for over two thousand years. The purpose for many of them was to document a subject or piece of knowledge for posterity or future use. Many were hand-written and access was controlled by a select few. Then comes the printing press, the beginnings of technology innovations, and the French Enlightenment. Boom.
Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
(Encyclopedia, or a Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts)1751-1772
Diderot and contributors (Encyclopedists) were out to record information on as many subjects as possible, and to make this available to the widest amount of people. At that time, information was held onto by either the clergy, monarchy, or closed guilds rather than it being freely available to all. Of course, some of the political, economic, religious, and philosophical articles landed an author or two in hot water with those in power. Some quit in the face of trouble, and some persisted.
The contributors of articles to the Encyclopédie were from a wide range of fields. Diderot was mainly served as the chief editor, and for a time was co-editor with the mathematician/physicist Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert who was also a contributor. Better-known contributors include Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. The most prolific of the encyclopedists was scholar Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt who was responsible for approximately 25% of the content.
I think we take for granted the ability to locate and read whatever information we need to make our lives better. We search engine and website our way throughout the day, and never give it a second thought. The Encyclopédie was the beginning of something we all use daily, but we are not considered radicals, or subversive, or in jail. That battle was fought for us by people like Diderot, d’Alembert, and the encyclopedists in the not so distant past, so that the future would be better for all. And it is…
Here are links to all or most of the volumes.ARTFL Encyclopédie, by the University of Chicago
Collaborative Translation Project, English Translation by the University of Michigan
Public Domain
