Diderot, Denis and Jean le Rond D' Alembert (editors) With additional editing & Notes by Octavien Diodati.

ENCYCLOPEDIE OU DICTIONNAIRE RAISONNE DES SCIENCES, DES ARTS ET DES METIERS, PAR UNE SOCIETE DE GENS DE LETTRES.Photo of Set

Mis en Ordre & Publie par M. Diderot, de l'Academie Royale des Sciences & des Belles-Lettres de Prusse; & quant a la PARTIE MATHEMATIQUE par M.D'Alembert, de l'academie. Royale des Sciences de Paris, de celle de Prusse, & de la Societe Royale de Londres.

Seconde Edition enrichie de notes, & donnee au Public Par M. Octavien Diodati Noble Lucquois. A Lucques chez Vincent Giuntini Imprimeur avec Approbation, MDCCLVIII. PHOTO TWO OF SET

And:

PHOTO1 PHOTO2 Planches Pur L'Encyclopedie ou Pur Le Dictionaire Raisonne Des Sciences Des Arts Liberaux Et Des Arts Mechaniques Avec Leur Explication. MDCCLXV.

And:

PHOTO OF SUPPLEMENTS

Supplement A L'Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne Des Sciences, Des Arts Et Des Metiers, Par Une Societe De Gens De Lettres. Amsterdam, Chez M. M. Rey, Libraire. MDCCLXXVI

Second edition, stated. 32 folio volumes. An Italian Edition printed in French with over lapping dates with the first French edition. Type reset and plates redrawn after the French edition with corrections. 28 volumes bound in full contemporary vellum, 4 volumes bound in full leather.

Comprising:

17 volumes of text,TEXT PAGE SAMPLE,

VOL1 of TEXT VOLUME

FRONTSPIECE OF VOLUME 1

PHOTO

PHOTO OF TABLE

PHOTO2

11 volumes of plates: 2,796 plates on 2944 leaves (as listed on title pages). The plates are consecutively number in each volume and all plates are present and match the descriptive text. 2 plates are out of place by several pages.

& a four volume textual supplement.

SUPPLEMENTS

Dates: Text volumes: 1758-1771. Printed in Italy in French.

Plate volumes: 1765-1776. Printed in Italy in French.

Supplement volumes, text only. 1776 - 1777. Printed in Amsterdam in French.

TITLE PAGE FOR SUPPLEMENT

Laid-in: A letter printed in Italian and French in side-by-side columns from the printer:

Avviso Ai Letterati Per La Enciclopedia Dated: Lucca 28. Febbraro 1771.

A single leaf, 9 ½ X 15 ¾ inches. Printed one side. Laid-in to volumes I-III.

A printed letter from the printer: Vincenzo Giuntini Ai Letterati. Dated, 1759, Luca.

Single leaf, 6 X 8 ½ inches, printed on both sides.

The Text: The 17 volumes of text contains an average of 950 two-column folio pages. Approximately 72, 000 articles on 16,500 pages by over 140 scholars including the most important minds of the era along with Diderot & d'Alembert, Voltaire, Rousseau, Moarmontel, d'Holbach and Turgot to name only a few.

This Italian edition, printed in French, edited by Octavien Diodati, and based on the original French edition. Each volume was completely reset.

The typical article contains a head word, its part of speech & gender, the category of knowledge (e.g. architecture, historie, mathematics etc.) and the descriptive, defining text. Some words have multiple entries. There is no definitive length of article. Some are one sentence, others are 20 or more pages making small books in themselves.

Not all volumes were issued with title pages.

(The set does not include the later issued (1780) 2 volume index or the one supplementary volume of plates-1780)

The Binding:

28 volumes in original, full vellum with gold spine lettering. 4 supplement volumes in full leather decorated in gold. Folio. 10 ½ X 16 ½ inches.

Condition: Vellum bindings: Occasional rubbing to corners, chipping to top edges of spines & spotting to covers. All hinges tight. A few minor page tears. Each volume contains a scattering of darkened pages due to the uneven quality of paper used. A minor showing of worm holes.

SPINE WITH REPAIR

The supplement volumes show weakening to the hinges, edges & corners rubbed, top & bottom of spine edges chipped. Lacking front & rear free end papers in all volumes. Volume II has an unfortunate brown stain to the bottom right hand corner from cover to cover, but it does not affect the text. Occasional light foxing. Fold-out geographical charts are very good.

bad corner of supplement text

decay of page of supplement text

Over all the set is in Very good, tight condition. A very handsome set.

A full, detailed condition chart available upon request.

The Plates:

The eleven plate volumes contain 2,606 single- page, double-, triple- and quadruple-page images grouped by themes. A legend precedes each grouping of plates. The collation matches completely those legends with only 2 plates out of place, but present. The plates were engraved on copper by Italian engravers, Nerici, Gregori, Canocchi, Franccs, G.B. Iuman, Guidotti, & Ioan Iuman and are copies of the original French plates.

The plates are consecutively numbered in each volume and all plates are present.

One plate which has been torn out, is laid in.

There are 6 small tears to the edges of plates, and a series of minor ink spots in one volume.

There are occasional darkened plates pages in each volume, due to the uneven quality of the paper used. Over all the plates are bright and remarkable in their detailed content.

Edition: This "Second" Edition, so stated on the title pages, was printed & published in Italy, on the heels of the original First edition, which was published in France beginning in 1751. The French edition met with immediate objections from the Catholic Church, and due to censorship, successive volumes appeared at an uneven pace. The first seven volumes were issued one per year 1751-1757. The ten remaining volumes were issued in 1766. The plates of the original edition were issued between 1761 & 1772, roughly one per year. This "Second" edition was printed in Italy in French, starting in 1758, the year after the first seven French volumes came to a halt. The remarkable aspect is that the text is completely re-set and the plates redrawn all matching the size and content (with editing) of the original edition. The Advertisement in Volume one of the Second edition lists the editors that contributed to this edition and the volumes with which they were associated.

Hence having both editions would allow scholars to compare the editing and the approved corrections.

Volume I: Front free end paper; half title; "Explication du Frontispice de L'Encyclopedie" (1)

Frontispice Def.par Cochin fils. Jean Laurent Guidotti Lucquois, f. ; Decorative title page;

Double page, folding table: "Systeme Figure..."; (4)pages: with page (1) decorated: "Au Sent de La Serenissime Republique De Lucques" by the editor, Octavien Diodati; (2) pages: "Advertissement De Vincent Giuntini Imprimeur."; i-li: pages "Deiscours Preliminaire Des Editeurs"; lii: "Advertissement"; liii-lx: "Explication Detaillee Du Systeme"; "Encyclopedi..."

Provenance: From the library of Felice & Frances Ferrero with their small bookplate on the end paper of each volume. Felice Ferrero, was of Piedmontese ancestry, but was born in Florence in 1878. He received a doctorate in science, majoring in chemistry in 1899 and first came to the United States in that year. He became the American correspondent for the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera (headquarters in Milan). In 1903, the Piedmontese owner of the Italian paper in San Francisco, invited Felice to become its editor. He accepted the job and the same year married Frances Cornelia Lance, a Wellesley graduate and a writer and translator. Felice and Frances moved to Berlin again working for Corriere della Sera and then on to Milan. In 1907 in financial partnership with his brother, Guglielo Ferrero (1872-1942: writer, historian & sociologist), started a bi-monthly review of science & industry, called Scienza Pratica.

Also in 1907, G.P. Putnam's Sons published Felice Ferrero's first book in English: The Valley of Aosta: Descriptive & Historical Sketch and two years later, it was published in Italy. Sometime during his stay in Milan, Felice purchased the Diderot set, moving it with them to Connecticut in 1912. In Connecticut on his 30 acre farm outside of Middletown, Felice began preparations to write a five volume history of science. He spent years collecting maps, making notes and amassing an extensive private library. The work was never finished, mainly due to the outbreak of World War I. He became a U.S. citizen in 1917, traveled and wrote extensively. Felice died in 1927. His widow, Frances Ferrero, sold or donated most of Felice's library over the years, but she kept the Diderot, passing it on at her death in 1956 to her nephew Theodore D. Lance. He lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, dying in 2001 in Foster City. Lance willed the Diderot to his nephew who is now offering it for sale.

The Bookplate: 2 ½ X 1 ¾ inches, black design on cream paper. The design is of double "F"s placed back-to-back. Sitting at the base of the letters, also back-to-back are a man and a woman reading. Top edge has the words: Ex Libris and along the bottom edge: F. et F. Ferrero.

There is no indication of the designer. In each volume the bookplate is neatly glued to the top, left hand corner of the end paper.