Great set of text and plates (24 pages) from the first edition of this enormously influential work. The plates form a series of illustrations on the printing process, including all the implements for type setting, papermaking, and printing presses. The Encyclopédie was published under the direction of Diderot with articles written by the most prominent philosophers of the time. These great minds collaborated in the goal of assembling and disseminating the fruits of accumulated knowledge and learning. Containing 72,000 articles written by more than 140 contributors, it was a massive reference work for the arts and sciences that served to propagate Enlightened ideas. Due to problems of censorship, the first edition was issued over a period of 21 years, in an original printing of approximately 4,000 copies.

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Condition: B

Bit of light foxing, with several worm tracks in margin, barely affecting some text but not the engravings.