---
title: "Encyclopédie"
chunk: 1/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopédie"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:36:33.670090+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (French for 'Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts'), better known as the Encyclopédie (French: [ɑ̃siklɔpedi]), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, an index, and translations. It had many contributors, known among contemporaries as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis Diderot and, until 1759, co-edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert.
The Encyclopédie is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment. According to Diderot in the article "Encyclopédie", the Encyclopédie's aim was "to change the way people think" and to allow people to inform themselves. Diderot hoped the Encyclopédie would disseminate a vast amount of knowledge to the present and future generations. Thus, it is an example of democratization of knowledge, though the high price of the first edition especially (980 livres) prevented it from being bought by much of the middle class.
The Encyclopédie was also the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors, and it was the first general encyclopedia to describe the mechanical arts in much detail. In the first edition, seventeen folio volumes of text were accompanied by eleven volumes of engravings. Later editions were published in smaller formats and with fewer engravings in order to reach a wider audience within Europe.

== Origins ==

The Encyclopédie was originally conceived as a French translation of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1728). Chambers had first published his Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in two volumes in London in 1728, following in the lineage of a handful of other dictionaries of the arts and sciences published in Europe since the late seventeenth century. This work became renowned, and four editions were published between 1738 and 1742. An Italian translation appeared between 1747 and 1754. In France, a member of the banking family Lambert had started translating the Cyclopaedia into French, but it was a translation of the Cyclopaedia undertaken around 1745 by the expatriate Englishman John Mills and the German Gottfried Sellius that attracted the interest of the Parisian bookseller and printer André Le Breton and led to the publication of the Encyclopédie.
Early in 1745 a prospectus for the Encyclopédie was published to attract subscribers to the project. Here, for the first time, the encyclopedia was entitled the Encyclopédie, a variant on the title chosen by Chambers. The four-page prospectus included a schedule stating that the work would be published in five volumes from June 1746 through the end of 1748.
The prospectus was reviewed positively and cited at some length in several journals. The Jesuit-run Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts was lavish in its praise. In June 1745, the Mercure printed a twenty-five-page article that praised Mills as a translator, equally fluent in French and English. The Mercure also reported that Mills had recruited several scholars to help, had devoted his fortune to supporting the enterprise, and was the sole owner of the publishing privilege. In fact, Mills' supposed fortune was probably fictional.
In any event, cooperation between Le Breton and Mills fell apart later on in 1745. Le Breton claimed among other things that Mills's knowledge of French was inadequate, an accusation supported by one contemporary. In a confrontation with the sword-wielding Englishman, Le Breton assaulted Mills with his cane. Mills took Le Breton to court, but the court decided in Le Breton's favor. Mills returned to England soon afterward. For his new editor, Le Breton settled on the mathematician Jean Paul de Gua de Malves. Among those hired by Gua de Malves were the young philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, the mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Denis Diderot. Thirteen months later, in August 1747, Gua de Malves resigned under pressure from Le Breton, having proven an ineffective leader. Le Breton then formed an alliance with three other booksellers (Antoine Briasson, Laurent Durand, and Michel-Antoine David) and hired Diderot and D'Alembert to be the new editors. D'Alembert left the role in 1758, but Diderot remained editor for the next 25 years, seeing the Encyclopédie through to its completion, though he threatened to resign upon discovering in 1764 that Le Breton, fearful of a crackdown, had been censoring some of his contributions to the Encyclopédie behind his back.

== Publication ==