Descriptions des Arts et Métiers
Descriptions des Arts et Métiers, faites ou approuvées par messieurs de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (
The project had its origin in request from
The articles and engravings in the Descriptions are more detailed and accurate than those in the Encyclopedia, and so are of more value for technical historians today.[citation needed] There is evidence that proofs of some 150 plates were stolen by agents of Diderot who had them re-engraved for his project. There is a similarity between many of the plates used in the two works.
The first of the volumes appeared in 1761, and the last in 1788.
Topics covered
- Building construction
- Clothing
- Shipbuilding
- Fishing
- Woodworking
- Pipe-organ making
- Metal working
- Turning and lathe work
- Scientific-instrument making
- Flour milling
- Baking and sugar refining
- Paper-making and bookbinding
- Tanning and soapmaking
- Wine and vineyards
- Cutlery and surgical instrument making
- Mining and metallurgy
- Porcelain and pottery manufacture
- Painting
- Textile manufacture
In all the series comprises 13,000 pages and 1,804 plates.
This series is an incomparable source of detailed information about the techniques of handicraft and manufacture in the 18th century. A handful of libraries worldwide have complete sets but it was reprinted in facsimile in 25 volumes by Slatkine Reprints of Geneva in 1984 with
References
- A. H. Cole and G. B. Watts. The Handicrafts of France, Boston, 1952. It was published by the Baker Library at Harvard. [2]
External links
(in French) Browsable on the BNF (French National Library) Gallica Web site Full scan: [3]
And a subset of the plates are viewable on the web site of the l'Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini"