Encyclopédie facts for kids
The title page of the Encyclopédie
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| Author | Numerous contributors, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert |
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| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Subject | General |
| Genre | Reference encyclopedia |
| Publisher | André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durand and Antoine-Claude Briasson |
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Publication date
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1751–1766 |
The Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (which means Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts in English) was a huge encyclopedia published in France. It came out in many parts between 1751 and 1772.
Its full name was very long! It basically meant Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts, by a society of men of letters, put in order by Mr. Diderot of the Academy of Sciences and Belles-Lettres of Prussia, and for the mathematical part, by Mr. d'Alembert of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, of Prussia, and of the Royal Society of London.
The Encyclopédie was special for a few reasons. It was the first encyclopedia to have articles written by many different people. It also included information about applied science and engineering, which was new for an encyclopedia. Most importantly, it showed the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. Denis Diderot, one of its main editors, said its goal was "to change the way people think."
The idea for the Encyclopédie started with a plan to translate an English encyclopedia called Cyclopaedia by Ephraim Chambers. In 1743, a French book publisher named André Le Breton gave the translation job to an Englishman named John Mills.
By 1745, Le Breton announced the book was ready to sell, but Mills hadn't finished the work. After some problems, Le Breton chose a new editor, a mathematician named Jean Paul de Gua de Malves. But he was later replaced because he wasn't a good leader. In 1747, Le Breton hired Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert to be the new editors. Diderot worked on the Encyclopédie for the next 25 years until it was finished.
Who Wrote It?
Many famous thinkers from the French Age of Enlightenment helped write the Encyclopédie. These included well-known people like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Baron d'Holbach. One person wrote a huge number of articles – 17,266 of them! That's about eight articles every day between 1759 and 1765.
How Big Was It?
The Encyclopédie was a massive project. Here are some facts about its size:
- It had 17 volumes of articles, published from 1751 to 1765.
- It also had 11 volumes of pictures and drawings, published from 1762 to 1772.
- In total, it had about 18,000 pages of text.
- There were 75,000 different topics or entries.
- About 44,000 of these were main articles.
- Around 28,000 were shorter, secondary articles.
- There were also 2,500 entries just for the pictures.
- The whole work contained about 20,000,000 words!
They printed about 4,250 copies of the Encyclopédie. This was a very large number for a book back in the 1700s. Most books at that time only had about 1,500 copies printed.
Images for kids
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Denis Diderot was one of the main editors of the Encyclopédie.
See also
In Spanish: Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers para niños
