Great set of with 3 plates and a page of text from the first edition of this enormously influential work. The plates form a series of illustrations on the woodblock process, including all the implements for cutting the blocks, view of a studio, and examples of finished blocks and print. 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: A+