Denis Diderot was born in the Catholic city of Langres in Champagne in l713. His father Didier Diderot was a cutler. His mother's family were tanners.
Diderot was a writer of plays and novels. Some of his works, however, were not as well received as others. In 1746 his recently published Philosophic Thoughts was burnt by the parliament of Paris. It is his Encyclopaedia which stands high above his literary works although this also had a difficult start. The first volume was published in Paris in April 1751 and a year later in 1752 it was condemned by the parliament of Paris.

The Encyclopaedia or to give it its full title 'L'Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raissonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers was a compendium of contemporary liberal and progressive thought. The original idea came from Chambers' Cyclopaedia published in London 1723. The publishers intended to produce a French translation of Chambers when they hired Diderot as editor. Diderot had other ideas. He wanted a completely new work to enlighten and explain every aspect of existence.

Diderot had two main collaborators The eminent mathematician Jean-!e Rond d'Alembert and the wealthy Louis de Jaucourt. Many famous men of the day contributed to the work including Georges Louis Buffon on nature, Baron de Montesquieu on politics and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire on philosophy. All the volumes were edited at Diderot's own lodgings without the help of secretaries and no doubt he would have liked the use of the modern equipment and technology employed in the preparation of this catalogue. Diderot's task included finding writers, assigning the subjects to them and arranging the engraving of the plates. Although the text of the Encyclopaedia gives long accounts of the trades and crafts it is the plates that provide a unique record of 18th century European technology. The publication of four volumes of plates was announced to subscribers in 1759. The first volume reached them in 1762 and in time the the volumes of plates grew to eleven containing some 2,900 plates covering the arts and crafts as well as engineering, sciences and other subjects. In illustrating the smaller crafts Diderot gives a view of the shop in the upper half of the plate with illustrations of the tools of the trade below. Other subjects are given fine double page illustrations.

Denis Diderot died in 1784 of apoplexy

FURTHER READING
A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trade and Industry. Dover Publications
The Censoring of Diderot's Encyclopedia by Douglas H. Gordon & Norman L. Torry
Diderot: The Testing Years: 1713-1759 by A. M. Wilson