BOOKING Diderot, (Denis) and (Jean) d'Alembert. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres. Mixing pad. 42 volumes of text and 3 tables. With 448 partly folded and double-leaf copper plates. 25.5 x 19.5 cm. Marbled leather ribbons d. C. (breathing and impacting, with scrapes) with rich floral gilding and 2 gold-embossed R signs each (renewed in the modern style of the table ribbons in the style d. c.). Geneva, Pellet and Lyon, Amable le Roy and Neuchatel, Societé Typographique, 1777-1781. Brunet II 973f. Carter-Muir 200. Graesse II, 474 f. Lough Essays, 52-110. Zishka 7. – mixed edition of various new prints. The 36 volumes "Discours" (completely; Nouvelle édition Geneva, Pellet, 1777-1779), 6 volumes "Table" (completely; Lyon, Amable le Roy, 1780-1781), and three volumes (Volume I: Neuchatel, Societé Typographique, 1779; Volumes II and III: Geneva, pellet, 1779) together with 448 coppers. The tables on the following areas of knowledge: Volume I: Mathematics: 78 tables; Geography: 19 plates; Shipbuilding: 46 panels. - Volume II: Anatomy: 28 panels; Architecture: 66 panels; Chemistry: 25 plates; Surgery: 36 panels; Music: 19 panels. - Volume III: 131 panels on various sciences, including music, militaria, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, physics, etc. The Encyclopédie, edited by Diderot and D'Alembert, who also responsible for a large part of the more than 70,000 articles in total, is considered the most important work of the Enlightenment. Today it is one of the outstanding sources for the society, culture and science of the 18th century. "A Monument in the History of European Thought; the Summit of the Age of Reason" (PMM). Diderot and D'Alembert intended with the work not only to pool and gather all the knowledge of their time, but also to influence and change people's thinking in the sense of the Enlightenment. They largely dispensed with historical and biographical articles, placing all the more emphasis on the treatment of applied mechanical arts, to which they granted equal status in addition to art and science. Of the just over 4000 printed copies, about half found a buyer outside France, although court, church, and judgeship were out of indignation. In 1759, the seven volumes published until then were banned by the Paris Attorney General and put on the index by the Pope. After many years of litigation, the other volumes could still be published in "Neufchâstel" (printing place Paris) and Amsterdam. – Not collated, apparently complete. A little tanned or flaky. Unitary bound series.