Diderot and d'Alembert Begin Publishing the Encyclopedie
A 28-volume reference work sets out to change the way ordinary people think
Quick facts
- Editors
- Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert
- Published
- 1751-1772
- Scale
- 17 volumes of text, 11 volumes of plates, 74,000 articles
- Contributors
- 130+, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu
What happened
Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert began publishing the Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, in 1751, eventually running to 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates by 1772, with 74,000 articles from more than 130 contributors including Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. Beyond compiling existing knowledge, the editors used cross-references between articles, a technique they called renvois, to let readers connect an orthodox religious entry to a more skeptical scientific one and draw their own conclusions, without the editors having to state a forbidden argument outright. Diderot also insisted on detailed articles and plates documenting the mechanical arts and trades, treating a locksmith's or a weaver's practical knowledge as worth the same systematic attention as classical philosophy.
Why it matters
French royal authorities suspended the Encyclopedie's publishing privilege more than once over its implicit challenges to church and crown, but it kept being produced and sold across Europe anyway, making it a working demonstration that Enlightenment ideas about method, tolerance, and evidence could circulate widely even under censorship.
How we know
The Encyclopedie's original volumes are digitized and searchable through the University of Chicago's ARTFL Encyclopedie project, which documents its 1751 to 1772 publication run and contributor list from the original text.
Sources
- University of Chicago. The ARTFL Encyclopedie Project · Primary source (author-declared)encyclopedie.uchicago.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Denis Diderot: Biography of Diderot · Reputable sourceplato.stanford.edu · The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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