From the Encylopédie, with superb plates and alphabets

Fonderie en Caracteres d'Imprimerie, Précédée de la Gravure des Poinçons, les deux Arts contenant huit Planches. [and] 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: $1,250.00

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Pp. 1-3, [4, blank]; 8 copper-engraved plates, Goussier del., Prévost fecit.; 1-17, [18, blank]; 25 copper-engraved plates, Goussier or Des Hauterayes del., Niodot Sculp. 1 vols. Folio. From the Encylopédie, with superb plates and alphabets. Removed. In later paper wrappers. Some soiling to margins, adhesion of wrappers at gutter of first and last pages, generally near fine. PMM 200; En français dans le texte, 156.

Item #41090

An important selection of 33 printing-related plates from the Récueil de Planches, that extraordinary illustrated supplement to the magnificent Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert. The plates depict the typefounding process and the alphabets and characters of more than 40 languages, from Assyrian and Hebrew to Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Bengali; the explanatory text gives a concise account of the various arts and a more detailed account of linguistic 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."