Denis Diderot / Jean Le Rond D'Alembert - Recueil de planches

DIDEROT (Denis) - LE ROND D’ALEMBERT (Jean) Collection of plates, on the sciences and liberal arts. At Briasson, David, Le Breton, Paris, 1767. In-folio (26 x 9.5 cm), (4)-16-17-8-(1)-(1)-9-(1)-3-(1)-(1)-(1)-(1)-7-(1)-(1)-(1) pp., bound. Marbled, goat-skin spine with gilt, title piece ochre, triple filet in gold tooling framing the covers, red edges. Contemporary binding. Headbands worn, three corners pierced, one corner worn, upper part of the first cover damaged, plate IV with the engraving in mezzotint cut in its center. Fifth volume of plates from the Encyclopédie, devoted to the sciences and liberal arts. It is illustrated with 248 plates on the following themes: papermaking, marbling on paper, marbling, lutherie, glasses maker, layetier, engraving, type founding, physics, measuring instruments, optics and astronomy, hydraulic mathematics and geometry. These plates attest to the encyclopedic ambition of Diderot and d’Alembert to render visible the knowledge and techniques of their time, by pairing the texts with substantial graphic documentation enabling an understanding of the principles, instruments, and processes. The volume thus blends the representation of arts and trades with that of the sciences, in a single enterprise of dissemination and organization of knowledge in the Enlightenment.

Estimate:£501.85

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