# Is "Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (editors) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (editors) (Briasson, David l'aîné, Le Breton and Durand, Paris, 1751) is identified by: The census publisher line is INCOMPLETE and would misidentify sets: the Paris imprint of Briasson, David, Le Breton and Durand appears only on volumes 1-7 (1751-1757). The Paris folio is the true first and the census is right that the Geneva, Lucca and Livorno reprints and unauthorized editions are far commoner than the true Paris printing; later quarto and octavo formats also circulate.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 395 x 252 mm)
- The census publisher line is INCOMPLETE and would misidentify sets: the Paris imprint of Briasson, David, Le Breton and Durand appears only on volumes 1-7 (1751-1757)
- Publication was banned in 1757, and volumes 8-17 — all issued together in 1765 — bear the FALSE imprint 'A Neufchastel: Chez Samuel Faulche & Compagnie, 1765', Neuchâtel then being an independent principality beyond the reach of the French state
- They were in fact produced secretly in Paris by Le Breton, and carry the colophon 'De l'Imprimerie de Le Breton, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy'
- A set whose volumes 8-17 read 'Paris' is therefore not the first edition
- The first edition proper comprises 28 volumes: 17 of text (1751-1765) and 11 of plates (Paris: Briasson etc., 1762-1772) — the census's volume counts are correct
- Publisher imprint reads Briasson, David l'aîné, Le Breton and Durand, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (editors) |
| Publisher | Briasson, David l'aîné, Le Breton and Durand, Paris |
| Year | 1751 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | 395 x 252 mm) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Folio (c. 395 x 252 mm). The census publisher line is INCOMPLETE and would misidentify sets: the Paris imprint of Briasson, David, Le Breton and Durand appears only on volumes 1-7 (1751-1757). Publication was banned in 1757, and volumes 8-17 — all issued together in 1765 — bear the FALSE imprint 'A Neufchastel: Chez Samuel Faulche & Compagnie, 1765', Neuchâtel then being an independent principality beyond the reach of the French state. They were in fact produced secretly in Paris by Le Breton, and carry the colophon 'De l'Imprimerie de Le Breton, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy'. A set whose volumes 8-17 read 'Paris' is therefore not the first edition. The first edition proper comprises 28 volumes: 17 of text (1751-1765) and 11 of plates (Paris: Briasson etc., 1762-1772) — the census's volume counts are correct. References: Norman 637; PMM 200. No edition statement, number line or jacket applies.

## Is this the true first?
The Paris folio is the true first and the census is right that the Geneva, Lucca and Livorno reprints and unauthorized editions are far commoner than the true Paris printing; later quarto and octavo formats also circulate. Format plus the imprint sequence is the discriminator: the first is folio, with Paris on volumes 1-7 and Neufchastel/Samuel Faulche on volumes 8-17. Complete sets as usually assembled run to 35 volumes by adding Panckoucke's Supplément (5 volumes — 4 of text and 1 of plates; Paris: Panckoucke, Stoupe and Brunet; Amsterdam: Rey, 1776-1777) and the Table analytique et raisonnée (2 volumes, Panckoucke/Rey, 1780). Those 7 volumes are Panckoucke's supplement and are not part of the first edition proper; a 28-volume set is complete as a first edition, and note that some catalogues count 12 plate volumes by folding the Supplément's plate volume into the plate sequence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issues apply. The specific documented trap: in 1770 Charles Joseph Panckoucke produced a reprint of the first three volumes which he dated 1751; these were impounded and later absorbed into a composite edition (also known as the 'Riverside' edition). A volume one dated 1751 is therefore not by itself proof of a first-edition set. Panckoucke obtained the rights to re-issue the work in 1775, and there were nine editions of the Encyclopédie in all. Because the set ran over two decades and was reprinted from early on to serve a subscriber list that grew from 1,000 by volume 3 to 4,000 by volume 4, made-up sets mixing editions are the norm rather than the exception — every volume must be collated individually against its expected imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers* by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (editors) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/encyclop-die-ou-dictionnaire-raisonn-des-sciences-des-arts-e
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.