Exotic Typography in the Encyclopédie

Caracteres et Alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes, Contenant vingt-cinq Planches. [Extracted from: DIDEROT, Denis, & Jean Le Rond d'ALEMBERT, editors. Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers. Recueil de Planches, sur les Sciences, les Arts Libéraux, et les Arts Mechaniques, avec leur Explication].

[Paris: 1762-1772].

Price: $1,000.00

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Pp. 1-17, [18, blank]; 25 copper-engraved plates, Goussier or Des Hauterayes del., Niodot Sculp. 1 vols. Folio. Exotic Typography in the Encyclopédie. Disbound. A very few spots in text leaves, else fine. PMM 200; En français dans le texte, 156.

Item #41089

An elegant and visually appealing selection of plates from the Récueil de Planches, that extraordinary illustrated supplement to the magnificent Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert. The plates depict alphabets and characters of more than 40 languages, from Assyrian and Hebrew to Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Bengali; the explanatory text gives a fully detailed account of the level of scholarship current in the mid to late eighteenth century. Printing and the Mind of Man describes the Encyclopedie as "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; a permanent source for all aspects of eighteenth-century civilization."