- 1670 Publication of Moreri's Dictionnaire historique.
- 1675 Colbert asks the Académie des Sciences to compile a
technical dictionary. The first volume of the
Description des arts et métiers is not published until
1761.
- 1694 First edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie
française.
- 1697 Bayle publishes his Dictionnaire historique et
critique.
- 1704 Publication in London of John Harris's Lexicon technologicam
or an Universal
Dictionary of the arts and sciences.
First edition of the so-called Dictionnaire de Trévoux
(Dictionnaire universel français et latin contenant la
signification
et la définition tant des mots [...] que des termes propres de
chaque
état et de chaque profession [...] l'explication de tout ce que
renferment les sciences et les arts) by the Jesuits.
- 1718 Second edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie
française.
- 1728 Publication in London of EPHRAIM CHAMBERS's Cyclopaedia or an
Universal Dictionary of arts and sciences.
- 1732 Fontenelle issues a revised edition of Thomas CORNEILLE'S
Dictionnaire des arts et des sciences (1694).
- 1740 Third edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie
française.
- 1743 Fifth edition of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux.
- 1744 Johann Jakob Brucker finishes his Historia critica
philosophiae.
- 1745 (February). The publisher LE BRETON make an agreement with the
German
Sellins and the Englishman Mills to translate Chambers's
Cyclopaedia into French.
(26 March). Le Breton obtains a privilege for a four-volume edition
of a Dictionnaire universel des arts et des sciences.
(August). Disagreement between Le Breton and his two collaborators
(18 October). Le Breton signs a contract for the publication
of a French encyclopaedia with three Parisian colleagues,
Briasson, Durand et David, who has been working since 1744 on a
French edition of Robert James's Dictionnaire de médecine,
translated by Diderot.
- 1746 (21 January). The Chancelor d'Aguesseau renews the privilege of
the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire universel des arts et des
sciences, traduit des Dictionnaires anglais Chambers et de Harris,
avec des additions.
(27 June). The abbé DE GUA DE MALVES, member of the Académie
des sciences is given editorial responsibility for the work.
He will be assisted by DIDEROT and d'ALEMBERT who will retranslate
certain
articles.
(7 July). The Parlement condemns the Pensées
philosophiques, an anonymous work by Diderot.
- 1747 (16 October). Diderot and d'Alembert replace
l'abbé de Malves as editors of the Encyclopédie.
- 1748 (30 April). A new privilege acknowledges changes in the general
conception of the work; it is now entitled
Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire universel des sciences, arts
et métiers, traduit [...] avec des augmentations.
(October). Montesquieu publishes l'Esprit des lois in Geneva.
Diderot begins technical research in Parisian workshops.
- 1749 (June). Diderot hires an artist, Goussier,to rework and complete
the images purchased from engravers and other merchants.
(24 July). Diderot is arrested and imprisoned at Vincennes as author of
the
Lettre sur les aveugles à l'usage de ceux qui voient.
After a month, he is permitted to see his friends, d'Alembert and
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, and his publishers, who fear that his absence will hurt
the Encyclopédie.
(3 November).Diderot is liberated and immediately begins work again.
- 1750 (November). 8.000 copies of the definitive Prospectus are
issued; 10 in-folio volumes including 2 volumes of plates are
anticipated.
Subscription costs: 60 livres deposit, 36 livres to be paid on delivery of
the first volume, announced for June 1751; 24 livres for each additional
volume to be delivered every six months, 40 livres for the eighth volume
with the two volumes of plates; total 372 livres.
- 1751 (January). In the Journal de Trévoux, the Jesuit
Berthier criticizes the imitation of
Francis Bacon's tree of knowledge in the "Prospectus".
- 1751 (February). The Lettre au R. P. Berthier,
Diderot's stingingly ironic response to Berthier. In order to
take further advantage of the publicity, the article "Art" is issued with
the letter. Lively discussion follows, generating interest in the work
and
attracting additional subscribers
(more than 1,000 by April).
(28 June). Publication of the first volume;
2.050 copies printed
(October). Violent attacks in the Journal de Trévoux ; the
Jesuits accuse the authors of the Encyclopédie of
criticizing
their teaching methods, denigrating kings and saints, preaching
freedom of speech and plagiarizing the
Dictionnaire de Trévoux. The archibishop
of Mirepoix, Boyer, warns the King against the dangerous tendencies of the
Encyclopédie; Malesherbes, the new director of the book
trade,
is required to name three censors who will look over the
articles.
(18 November). L'abbé DE PRADES, a friend of Diderot's and
collaborator
on the Encyclopédie, successfully defends his theological
thesis at the Sorbonne, Quel est celui sur la force duquel Dieu a
répandu le souffle de la vie? But the Jesuits
quickly detect heretical propositions in the work.
(December). Voltaire, in the conclusion of the Siècle de Louis
XIV, praises the Encyclopédie.
- 1752 (January). Several days after the publication of the second
volume
of the Encyclopédie, the abbé de Prades's thesis
is censored by the Sorbonne, which cites him for promoting sensualism and
natural religion. The archbishop of Paris, CHRISTOPHE DE
BEAUMONT, issues a decree; the Parlement condemns it to be burned.
(February). A pamphlet written by the Jesuit Geoffroy,
Les Réflexions d'un franciscain, avec
une lettre préliminaire adressée à M. [Diderot],
auteur en partie du Dictionnaire philosophique,
reveals the relations between the abbé de Prades and
the abbés Yvon, Pestré, Mallet,
who are collaborating on the Encyclopédie. At the
same time, the Jesuits denounce the ariticle Certitude, signed
by the abbé de Prades, as heretical.
(7 February). A decree by the royal council orders the suppression of the
first two volumes of the Encyclopédie. Shortly thereafter,
Prades, Pestré et Yvon go into exile.
- 1752 (May). Thanks to the efforts of Malesherbes--who seems to have
hidden
Diderot's papers in his own father's house to protect them from
seizure--and Madame de Pompadour, the government discreetly authorizes
Diderot and d'Alembert to resume their work.
(November). La Querelle des bouffons, pitting proponents
of traditional French opera against the supporters of Italian
opera buffa, begins to claim public attention.
- 1753 Publication of volume III of the Encyclopédie,
printed in 3,100 copies, with an Avertissement des
éditeurs written by d'Alembert.
- 1754 (February). New printing of the first three volumes,
bringing the total number of copies to 4,200.
(November). Volume IV of the Encyclopédie. The undertaking
has taken on national importance. In the article Droit de copie,
planned for volume V, the bookseller David writes that the work
"appartient
à la France". D'Alembert is elected to the Académie
Française.
- 1755 (November). Volume V, preceded by the Éloge
de Montesquieu by d'Alembert.
- 1756 (May). Volume VI of the Encyclopédie.
(August). D'Alembert visits Voltaire at les Délices near Geneva.
They discuss the article Genève.
- 1757 (5 January). DAMIENS attempts to assassinate Louis XV.
(21 April). Edict by the Parlement prescribes the death penalty
or service in the galleys for authors and publishers of tendencious
and clandestine works.
(30 June). Fréron accuses the author of
Le Fils naturel, Diderot, of plagiarism.
Attacks against the Encyclopédie appear in the
le Mercure de France: "Premier Mémoire sur les Cacouacs"
(les
Encyclopedists), "Avis utile et nouveau Mémoire pour servir
à l'histoire des Cacouacs" by Moreau, royal historiographer,
who portrays the Encyclopedic party as an powerful clan organized for
the purpose of attacking morality, religion and government
(Jacques Proust, Diderot et l'Encyclopédie, p. 109);
Other critiques appear in Fréron's Année
littéraire , la Gazette littéraire, la Gazette de
France,
les Mémoires de Trévoux and les Nouvelles
ecclésiastiques, the Jansenist periodical.
(November). Volume VII of the Encyclopédie. The article
Genève, signed by d'Alembert, draws protest
from Genevan pastors, who are insulted by his praise for their
Socinianism, and from the devout faction in France which
detects a deistic profession of faith.
- 1758 (January). Discouraged by the opposition the work has
encountered and feeling that he is underpaid
(letter to Voltaire, 20 January 1758), d'Alembert
decides to abandon the enterprise.
(March). The publishers compose a Mémoire sur les motifs de
la suspension de l'Encyclopédie, in which they plead with
d'Alembert to retain his position. He accepts reluctanly.
(July). HELVÉTIUS, friend of the Encyclopedists, publishes his
treatise De l'Esprit in which he elaborates a materialist
philosophy.
(August). The privilege for De l'Esprit is withdrawn.
(September). Publication of the first two volumes of the
Préjugés légitimes contre
l'Encyclopédie;
Abraham Chaumeix seeks to refute both the Encyclopédie
and De l'Esprit.
(November). The archbishop of Paris condemns
De l'Esprit.
- 1759 (23 January). The Parlement examines eight subversive works,
including De l'Esprit and the Encyclopédie.
Violent declaration against their impiety and licence.
(6 February). De l'Esprit is condemned to be burned.
The Encyclopédie escapes this sentence,
but it will be subject to a "revision committee" comprising
theologians, lawyers and scholars, all Jansenists.
(8 March). The royal council withdraws the privilege of 1746; the
distribution and reprinting of the Encyclopédie
are forbidden. The decree seems to mean the end of the undertaking,
and d'Alembert quits definitively. However, in a sense, the
proclamation saved the Encyclopédie by removing it
from the legal control of its enemies
(Jacques Proust, I'Encyclopédie, p. 65).
(21 July). A new decree orders the publishers to reimburse
subscribers for the unpublished volumes. But no subscribers request
this money.
The publishers make contact with foreign editors and propose that
the printing of the work either be completed abroad or continue
in France with the tolerance of the government. Malesherbes rejects
the first solution and doesn't respond to the second. The
Encyclopedists take this as implicit permission.
Despite the condamnation of the work by the Pope Clément XIII
(3 September), Diderot and the publishers propose compensating
subscribers with delivery of the plates to appear one volume
per year beginning in 1760.
(8 September). New privilege accorded for a Recueil
de
mille planches gravées en taille douce sur les sciences, les arts
libéraux et mécaniques, les explications des figures en
quatre
volumes in folio. Diderot is thus able to continue his work.
(November). Adversaries of l'Encyclopédie attack from a
new front. Fréron publishes the denunciation of a former
bookseller employee: the plates, whose printing was being prepared, were
purportedly stolen from Réaumur just before his death.
L'Académie des Sciences--of which Réaumur had been
secretary-for-life--investigates and ultimately absolves Diderot of
this accusation.
- 1760 (March). LeFranc de Pompignan gives an acceptance speech at
l'Académie
Française which violently criticizes both
l'Encyclopédie and the philosophical spirit. Voltaire
replies in a succession of pamphlets--the quand, the
pour, the que, the
qui, the quoi, the oui
the non, the car, the ah! ah!--and, in an effort to
avenge Diderot, decides to present his canditature to l'Académie
Française. Diderot, however, declines the offer.
(May). Palissot's Philosophes opens at la
Comédie-Française, a play which plagiarizes les Femmes
savantes and abuses Diderot, Helvétius, Grimm, Madame
Geoffrin and especially Rousseau, who is portrayed as an animal walking on
all fours.
L'abbé Morellet retorts with an incisive brochure, Vision
de Charles Palissot, which will consequently warrant his imprisonment.
- 1761 While his Père de Famille is received with success,
Diderot finishes the explanatory text to accompany the
Encyclopédie's plates.
- 1762 The first volume of plates appears in January. The future of the
Encyclopédie will be ensured by, of all people, the
Jansenists: In response to the
bankruptcy of the Jesuit La Valette, the Jansenist Parliament closes all
the
Jesuit secondary schools, and then, on the 6th of August, condemns "les
bulles, brefs,
constitutions, et autres règlements de la Société se
disant de Jésus". The members of the Jesuit order are expelled from
France and with them disappear the most passionate adversaries of
l'Encyclopédie. Consequently, Diderot can now decline the
offer of
Catherine II to finish his Dictionnaire in Saint
Petersburg.
Fourth Edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie
française.
- 1763 Volumes II and III of the plates are published.
L'Encyclopédie loses its protector Malesherbes, who is
fortunately replaced as director of the Librairie by Sartine, a
friend of Diderot.
- 1764 (November). Searching for information in one of the printed, but
not yet published volumes, Diderot realizes that in order to avoid the
problems of censorship, the bookseller Le Breton had falsified for at
least 2 years several of his articles as well as articles by
Saint-Lambert, Turgot, d'Holbach, and Jaucourt. The philosophe
knows it would be impossible to reprint everything and, pressed by his
friends, he consents to see his work through to the end.
- 1765 (August). Diderot writes an Avertissement that will serve
as a preface to Volume VIII. The completion of his work does little,
however, to assuage his bitterness: "Notre ouvrage serait fini sans une
nouvelle bêtise
de l'imprimeur qui avait oublié dans un coin une partie du
manuscrit. J'en ai, je crois, pour le reste de la semaine, après
laquelle je m'écrierai: Terre! Terre!" (Letter to Sophie
Volland, August 8 1765).
(December). The death of the dauphin weakens the devout party, and
the booksellers seize the opportunity to offer the remainder of
l'Encyclopédie to
the general public.
- 1766 (January). Publication of Volume IV of the plates and of the ten
remaining Encyclopédie Volumes. The title, modified in a
prudent stratagem, leads one to believe that the work has been printed
abroad: Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des
sciences, des
arts
et des métiers, par une Société de gens de lettres.
Mis
en ordre par M. ***. A Neufchatel, chez Samuel Fauche et Compagnie,
libraires et imprimeurs, 1765.
- 1766 (28 February). Torture and execution of the chevalier de La
Barre.
(23 April). 8 day imprisonment in the Bastille of the bookseller Le
Breton, guilty of having dispatched to Versailles, without authorization,
several copies of the Encyclopédie's final volumes. This
incident does not, however,
prevent Diderot from completing the last plate volumes.
- 1767-1772 Publication of volumes V through XI of the plates.