The Encyclopédie was originally conceived as a French translation of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1728). Ephraim Chambers had first published his Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences … See more

The work consisted of 28 volumes, with 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations. The first seventeen volumes were published between 1751 and 1765; eleven volumes of plates were … See more

Structure
Like most encyclopedias, the Encyclopédie attempted to collect and summarize human … See more

Approximate size of the Encyclopédie:
• 17 volumes of articles, issued from 1751 to 1765
• 11 volumes of illustrations, issued from 1762 to 1772
• 18,000 pages of text
• 75,000 entries See more

Since the objective of the editors of the Encyclopédie was to gather all the knowledge in the world, Diderot and D'Alembert knew they would need various contributors to help them with their project. Many of the philosophes (intellectuals of the French See more

The Encyclopédie played an important role in the intellectual foment leading to the French Revolution. "No encyclopaedia perhaps has been … See more

• "The goal of an encyclopedia is to assemble all the knowledge scattered on the surface of the earth, to demonstrate the general system to the people with whom we live, & to … See more