L'invention d'un statut pour les arts et metiers dans l''Encyclopedie' et ses avatars au XVIIIe siecle: L'Exemple des articles consacres aux metiers du livre

One of the distinctive features of the Encyclopedie was the creation of a new status for the crafts and trades in France. This work takes an inventory of over 300 trades and implements a unique methodology for documenting them. The iconographical dimension of this methodology becomes a crucial component in the endeavour to furnish practical and useful instruction where words cannot deliver. Diderot's underlying intent is to reveal the inventions of the artisans and the particular operations relating to their trades, with the objective to sensitize his audience to the necessity and honour of manual labour, eradicate existing prejudice held against the artisan and heighten productivity for the nation. The innovative qualities of the Encyclopedie are in large part responsible for its commercial success and the successive versions which follow. The cheaper, small format editions reach a wider readership, but they suppress all of the plates relating to the crafts and trades, thus compromising Diderot's social vision. However, if we look a little further afield, outside of the direct lineage of Diderot's Encyclopedie, we notice that the Encyclopedie methodique conceived and launched by Panckoucke, takes up the original content of the first edition in its entirety and publishes it in an accessible edition, organized this time by subject area, which gives birth to the Arts et metiers mecaniques dictionary. We shall determine how this specialized dictionary is the most effective conduit for Diderot's social ideology of all the avatars of the Encyclopedie in the XVIIIth century.