DIDEROT (Denis) d'Alembert (Jean Le Rond) - Lot 232

Lot n° 232
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Estimation :
30000 - 50000 EUR
DIDEROT (Denis) d'Alembert (Jean Le Rond) - Lot 232
DIDEROT (Denis) d'Alembert (Jean Le Rond) Encyclopedia, or reasoned dictionary of sciences, arts and crafts. Paris, and Neuchatel, 1751-1777. 33 volumes in-folio; tortoiseshell calf, spine ornamented, red morocco title-piece, threaded edges, red borders (uniform binding of the period). First edition containing 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates published between 1751 and 1772, to which is added the supplement of 5 volumes, 1 of which of plates published in 1776-1777. The 2 volumes of table, by Mouchon, published in 1780, are missing. A reference work of the "Siècle des Lumières". Born from an abandoned project of translation of Chambers' English Encyclopedia, it is in 1749 that Diderot and d'Alembert started the execution of this monumental collective work, with the help of the greatest writers, scholars, thinkers, and economists of the time: Buffon, Condillac, Helvétius, d'Holbach, Montesquieu, Quesnay, Rousseau, Turgot, or Voltaire. The illustration includes a frontispiece, a folding table and 2793 engraved plates (or 3127 if one considers the way of counting double, triple, or quadruple plates in the work). The first plate of the stationery series (which is double) is missing in volume 5. Copy in uniform contemporary binding, good condition inside. Covers and corners worn, rubbing on the boards, jaws sometimes cracked over a few cm. Holes on pages 7/8 of the mathematical section (in volume 5) with loss of text. Plate 84 of volume 6 torn but not missing.
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