Beschreibung:

DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784) and JACQUES D'ALEMBERT (?1717-1783, editors). Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers . Vols I-VII: 'Paris: Le Breton for Briasson, David the elder, Le Breton, and Durand, 1751-1757' [?Paris: Le Breton for Charles Panckoucke (vols I-III) and ?Paris: Charles Panckoucke (vols IV-VII)] and vols VIII-XVII: 'Neufchastel: Samuel Faulche & Compagnie' [Paris: Le Breton for Briasson, David, Le Breton, and Durand], 1765. 17 volumes. Half-titles in vols I-VII. Woodcut vignettes on titles, woodcut music and diagrams, and letterpress tables in the text, some full-page, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. (Lacking frontispiece and 'Explication' leaf.) 'Riverside' edition of vols I-VII, FIRST EDITION OF VOLS VIII-XVII. Lough Essays on the Encyclopédie (London: 1968), pp.15-20. Receuil des planches . Volumes I-II, i: Paris: Briasson, David, Le Breton, and Durand; volumes II, ii-VI: Paris: Briason, David and Le Breton; volume VII: Paris: Briason and Le Breton; volumes VIII-XI Paris: Briason, 1762-1772. 10 volumes bound in 11. Half-titles. Woodcut title vignettes. 2561 engraved plates, 290 folding, 3 letterpress tables, 1 folding, woodcut diagrams in the text. FIRST EDITION. Lough pp. 20-21. [Jean-Baptiste-René ROBINET (1735-1820, editor)]. Supplément à l'Encyclopédie . Vols I-IV: Amsterdam: [Jean-Georges-Antoine Stoupe] for Marc Michel Rey; vol. V: Amsterdam and Paris: [Jean-Georges-Antoine Stoupe] for Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, Jean-Georges-Antoine Stoupe, Pierre-Prudence Brunet, and Marc Michel Rey, 1776-1777. 5 volumes [including Suite de Receuil de planches ]. Half-titles. Woodcut title vignettes. 215 engraved plates, maps and plans, 1 folding double-page, 27 double-page, 5 folding letterpress tables, woodcut illustration, diagrams, music and letterpress tables in the text, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. FIRST EDITION. Lough pp.12-14 (mixed edition). [Pierre MOUCHON (1733-1797)]. Table analytique et raisonnée . Paris and Amsterdam: Imprimerie de Stoupe for Charles Joseph Panckoucke and Marc-Michel Rey, 1780. 2 volumes. Half-titles. Woodcut title-vignettes. Engraved folding plate, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. FIRST EDITION. Lough pp.14-15. 35 volumes, 2° (398 x 258mm). (Variable light spotting and browning, some light marginal dampstaining.) Contemporary speckled calf gilt, boards with borders or triple gilt fillets, gilt turn-ins, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in 2 (lightly rubbed and scuffed, extremities a little bumped). Provenance : Alfred Earera (bookplates). 'A MONUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN THOUGHT; THE ACME OF THE AGE OF REASON; A PRIME MOTIVE FORCE IN UNDERMINING THE ANCIEN RÉGIME AND IN HERALDING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION' (PMM). Immediately recognised for its philosophical importance, such was the Encyclopédie 's popularity and fame that -- despite repeated, powerful, and partly-successful censorship campaigns waged against it -- by the time of the French Revolution in 1789 some 25,000 sets of various editions were in circulation in Europe, nearly half of them in France (cf. R. Darnton The Business of Enlightenment (Cambridge, MA and London: 1979), p.37). The demand for the Encyclopédie , however, exceeded the copies available, and a contemporary commentator stated in 1769 that 'les sept premiers volumes surtout sont devenus très rares' ( Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 80, p. 101; the print-run for the later volumes had been increased by the publishers). Charles Panckoucke had commissioned Le Breton, the printer of the original edition, to reprint the early volumes, but the first three volumes to be printed had been seized and impounded in the Bastille in 1770, where they would remain until they were released to Panckoucke's agents in 1776. On their release, Panckoucke appears to have had copies of volumes IV to VII printed, acquired some or all of the 600 sets of volumes VII-XVII whi