A World of Things: Denis Diderot Colouring Book - Pack of 1

With their Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts), editors Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert set out to map the scope of human knowledge. Published between 1751 and 1772, the encyclopedia's 28 volumes tackled subjects from chemistry and philosophy to botany and bookbinding. Contributors, including philosophers Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, espoused such Enlightenment values as empiricism and secularism, making the encyclopedia controversial in its time. The illustrations in this book are from a copy of the Encyclopédie owned by Gouverneur Morris, who served as a delegate at the Continental Congress and, later, as United States ambassador to France. Morris authored the preamble to the US Constitution, a document heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. Morris's copy of the Encyclopédie is held in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the world's largest and most eclectic library, the Library of Congress, which holds materials in more than 470 languages. The Library's French collection, alone, comprises approximately one million items.