"ARCHITECTURE ET PARTIES QUI EN DÉPENDENT", belonging to the "ENCYCLOPEDIA REZONADA DE LAS CIENCIAS, LAS ARTES Y LOS OFICES", edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, second half of the 18th century.
"Colonnade of the Louvre".
Engraving (double plate).
Size: 35.5 x 45 cm (print); 44 x 54.5 cm (paper).
The engraving presented here comes from the volume "Architecture et parties qui en dépendent", one of the 28 exceptional volumes that formed the "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" (Encyclopédie raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers), published in the second half of the 18th century in France under the direction of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Along with the other illustrations, this engraving disseminates the fruits of the knowledge accumulated in architecture up to that time, under the criticism of reason, through plans and elevations of public and private buildings, gadgets and other advances of the time. The Encyclopaedia became a key piece of the Enlightenment, whose ideology exposed the approach with which the different subjects were approached. It was intended to be the compendium of human knowledge, so that it served as a basis for the education and progress of mankind. In its 28 volumes (with 71818 articles and 3129 illustrations) there were topics ranging from the construction of a cathedral to the operation of a clock or the philosophical ideas of Rousseau. Many of these articles were considered radical at the time and generated an intense controversy and the prohibition of the continuity of the publication, although it always had the support of the upper class, among whom we can mention Malesherbes or Madame Pompadour. In 1775, Charles Joseph Panckoucke obtained the rights to republish the work. This publisher published a total of seven volumes of supplementary materials. Some scholars include these seven "extra" volumes as part of the complete first edition of the Encyclopédie, to make a total of 35 volumes, even though they were not written or edited by the original authors. Previously, the Cyclopaedia (Universal Dictionary of the Sciences and Arts), published in 1728 by Ephraim Chambers, as well as Trévoux's Dictionary (1704-1771) composed by the Jesuits, had unveiled interest in this type of publication. In 1745 the bookseller André Le Breton obtained the license to translate Chambers' Cyclopaedia into French, but the incorporation of Diderot and D'Alembert into the project completely changed the project from a simple translation to a monumental new work.