EncyclopédieArticle Free Pass Encyclopédie, in full
Encyclopédie, Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné Des Sciences, Des Arts Et
Des Métiers, (French: “Encyclopaedia, or Classified Dictionary
of Sciences, Arts, and Trades”), the 18th-century French
encyclopaedia that was one of the chief works of the
Philosophes, men dedicated to the advancement of science and
secular thought and the new tolerance and open-mindedness of the
Enlightenment. The Encyclopédie was a literary and philosophical
enterprise with profound political, social, and intellectual
repercussions in France just prior to the Revolution. Its
contributors were called Encyclopédistes. The Encyclopédie was
inspired by the success of Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia; or An
Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (London, 1728).
Indeed, the work originated in an abortive attempt to put out a
five-volume French translation of Chambers’ Cyclopaedia. When
this project collapsed in 1745, its intended publisher, André Le
Breton, immediately embarked on plans for an exp