UW-Madison Libraries Exhibits

The Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert

For the convenience of our students, we provide here selected pages from the copy of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert in the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library. Please come to the Special Collections reading room (984 Memorial Library) to consult the dozens of volumes of texts and plates comprising the Encyclopédie.

From Volume 1

Frontisiece
Frontispiece
Title Page
Title Page
Foldout Scheme of the system of human knowledge
Foldout scheme of the system of human knowledge.
Oft-reproduced engraving of 18th-century typesetting, along with a composing stick and the words "GLOIRE à DIEU. Honneur au Roi. Salut aux ARMES."
Oft-reproduced engraving of 18th-century typesetting, along with a composing stick and the words “GLOIRE à DIEU. Honneur au Roi. Salut aux ARMES.”

From volume 7 of the Planches (plates)

Oft-reproduced engraving of 18th-century typesetting, along with a composing stick and the words “GLOIRE à DIEU. Honneur au Roi. Salut aux ARMES.”

Additional Resources

Special Collections also holds the “nouvelle édition” in 36 volumes published in Geneva by Pellet in 1777-1779 and the Encyclopédie mèthodique, ou par ordre de matières par une Société de gens de lettres, de savans et d’artistes in 194 volumes, a new and enlarged edition of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, arranged as a system of separate dictionaries and published by Charles Panckoucke, 1782-1792, continued by Henri Agasse, 1792-1813, and Mme. la veuve Agasse, 1813-1832.

These images are meant only to supplement other major electronic resources concerning the Encyclopédie, including:

  • ARTFL searchable full-text version
  • The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, including facsimiles in English of the “map of the system of human knowledge”
  • Digitized versions of various editions of the Encyclopédie available through Gallica: La Bibliothèque numérique of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.