Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts - L'Encyclopédie

Hi everyone! I’m starting this blog, which had, and has, his partner in Spanish. And to start, let's do it with the basis of everything. 

Every writer, and other people linked to the world of letters, have drawn upon an encyclopaedia some time, even if it only has been at school to make an essay. Either through its online or physical use, these books usually delivered in several volumes don’t lose validity, because they are the first source which we must draw on.

And as this blog is related mainly to Literature, I cannot stop mentioning this one, the first French encyclopaedia, edited between 1751 and 1772 by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alambert, after the editorial success it had in England the Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, or Cyclopaedia, in 1728.

Cover of the Encyclopaedia

Some authors, whose articles can be found in the Encyclopaedia, are, among others, Montesquieu; Quesnay; Jean Jacques Rousseau -who wrote about music and political theory-; Turgot; y Voltaire -with essays about history, literature, philosophy and theology-.

One of the relevant articles, which talks about the American continent is, precisely, America:

“The history of the world doesn’t offer another event so singular, at the look of philosophers, than the discovery of the new continent, which, with the seas that surround it, form a whole hemisphere of our planet (…)”

Charles-Nicolas Cochin

 

Questionsss :)

- Have you ever used an encyclopaedia?

- Do you still use it?

Thank you for being here!

See you later! :)