In the mid-1700s , a pair of Gallic writers set out to organize all human knowledge . They call their project theEncyclopédie , and it was a transformation and massive enlargement of the EnglishCyclopædia , or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences . Denis Diderot was the driving force behind the labor , and was play along by Jean le Rond d’Alembert until 1759 .
The projection was deucedly vast , and raised substantial questions that still challenge scholars today : How do you categorize and classify noesis ? Should the arts be present alongside the sciences ? How incisively can a reader sail a 20,000,000 - word solicitation of info ? Hardest of all was how to print the matter and not be immure .
Diderot ’s encyclopedia was almost insanely vast . It incorporate more than 70,000 entering , including original work from Voltaire , Rousseau , and other luminaries of the Gallic Enlightenment . Many author contributed massive amount of Labour Party , almost all of it unpaid , cross three decades .
Louis XV and Pope Clement XIII both banned the thing , though Louis kept a written matter , and apparently actually did read it . Because of political and spiritual pressure in France , Diderot and his compatriot had to smuggle pages out of the country so as to write them . Collecting human cognition was n’t just an pedantic exercise — it was also political .
Diderot explained his destination like so ( translated from theoriginal Frenchin an entry on theEncyclopédieitself ):
Well say .
TED - Edproduced a rattling video recording historyof the encyclopedia . Have a spirit :
If you incur that even remotely interesting , you ’ll lovethis on-line variation of the encyclopediahosted by the University of Michigan Library . It includes an splendid search locomotive , translations , and scans of the original pages — including exemplification plate . If you ’re count for a starter first appearance , readthe entry entitle History(originallyHistoire ) write by Voltaire , which attempts to explainthe history of account , at least from the position of an 18th - century French philosopher . Here ’s a snipping from the finish :
