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The Encyclopédie Unbound: Diderot, d'Alembert, and the Radical Vision of Knowledge

Thu, April 10th, 2025
4:00 pm
- 5:30 pm

Widely regarded as one of the most remarkable works of the eighteenth century, Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s monumental Encyclopédie (1751–1772) remains a symbol of intellectual rebellion and freethinking. Banned twice by the king, placed on the papal index, and secretly printed in a clandestine warehouse, this 28-volume work reshaped Europe’s intellectual landscape. In this talk, Diderot biographer Andrew S. Curran will introduce the key figures behind the Encyclopédie, discuss the historical context of the eighteenth-century book trade, and recount how what was supposed to be a neutral dictionary morphed into one of the era’s most effective weapons against religious intolerance, superstition, and divine right.

This talk will take place in the Chapin Library to celebrate the acquisition of a first edition of the Encyclopédie. It is free and open to the general public.

ANDREW S. CURRAN is the author or editor of six books, including The Race Makers – a group biography chronicling the invention of race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson. His previous works include Who is Black and Why?, co-authored with Henry Louis Gates Jr., and the biography Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, which was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and numerous other outlets. He has also written for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Guardian, Newsweek, Time Magazine, The Paris Review, El Païs, and The Wall Street Journal. Curran is a fellow in the history of medicine at the New York Academy of Medicine, a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques, and the William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities at Wesleyan University.

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