Birds from Diderot's
Encylopedia
Original 18th Century copperplate
print after a drawing by Francois Nicolas
Martinet - one of the most famous bird illustrators
of all time - for the Encyclopédie,
the great compendium of enlightenment knowledge
published during the second half of the 18th
Century.
Francois Nicolas Martinet ((1731-1790?)
created illustrations of birds for books by
some of the most influential publications of
18th-century France.
The Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire
Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers
was published in Paris between 1762-1777. A
masterpiece of the enlightment, it set out all
the knowledge of the day, and was a first attempt
to document the techniques of mechanical production
for objects used in everyday life. Scholars
from around the world, including Benjamin Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson submitted chapters.
Denis Diderot was a French
philosopher, and man of letters, and the chief
editor of the L'Encyclopédie, one of
the principal achievements of the Age of Enlightenment.
He was a a friend of the great minds of his
age including Goethe, Rousseau, and Hume. A
freethinker, Diderot challenged the authority
of the Church and criticized the French system
of government.
Dimensions: appoximately: 10 X
15.25 inches
