Guilbaud, Alexandre. “D’Alembert’s
Contribution to the Encyclopédie: A Review of Research on the Inventory of His Articles.” Centaurus, vol. 59, no. 4, 2017, pp. 320–28. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/1600-0498.12166.
Guilbaud writes here of the previously written inventories of Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s contributions to the French Encyclopédie and provides his own additions and supplemental information to them. He clarifies first that the inventories do not include any front matter or plates, then summarizes the issues, differences, similarities, and details of the three major d’Alembert inventories; namely, those by Gilles Maheu, R.N. Schwab, and J. Lough. Guilbaud claims that the first (Maheu), although a helpful starting resource, committed three compilation errors: failing to determine which Encyclopédie edition was used, failing to include definitions of “article” or “entry”, and neglecting to name attribution criteria (for articles attributed to d’Alembert that contain no formal signature). He then discusses the ways in which Schwab and Lough approach these shortcomings, particularly in how they determined their attribution criteria. Having done so, Guilbaud adds the results of his own detailed inventory of the Encyclopédie, specifying his attribution criteria and comparing his total number of d’Alembert articles to Schwab and Lough, explaining why the numbers differ. He concludes by calling for more research on d’Alembert’s writing strategies in order to make the updated inventory even more complete and based on solid evidence.
Basic Information
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Language: English
Decade: 2010s
Main Classification: Authorship
Related Sources
*In Progress*
Notes
1. Article translated into English from French.
2. Guilbaud compares inventory strategies to ENCCRE (Édition Numérique Collaborative et CRitique de l'Encyclopédie)
Updates
1/24/2021: Created page.