Pinault, Madeleine. “Sur les planches de
l’Encyclopédie de d’Alembert et Diderot,” in L’Encyclopédisme (Actes du Colloque de Caen, 12-16 janvier 1987), edited by Annie Becq, le Concours de la Ligue Française de l’Enseignement et l’Université de Caen, 1991, pp. 355–62.
Pinault opens with a call to action: often, studies treat the plates and the text separately rather than considering the relationships between them. It is, she claims, through an examination of the plates’ source material that we can begin to understand the Encyclopedists’ creative methods, for the contributors rarely visited workshops or conducted investigations on scene. The plates (both images and explanations) are a synthesis of borrowed or purchased preexisting works and manuscripts, coming from royal libraries or Academies, fellow philosophes, or foreign countries. Finding the sources for the plates is a difficult endeavor but Pinault claims that of 278 subjects, 149 have identified source material (specific examples are provided). Included as well is a discussion on how the Encyclopédie references (or fails to reference) its materials used for the plates.
Basic Information
Country of Publication: France
Language: French
Decade: 1990s
Main Classification: Plates, Source Material
Related Sources
*In Progress*
Notes
None
Updates
6/22/2021: Created page.