First Volume of Diderot's Encyclopédie

June 28, 1751

Diderot and d'Alembert published the first of what would become seventeen folio volumes - an attempt to pull every human art and science under one roof of reason. The Church tried to suppress it; subscribers smuggled copies across borders; Europe's mind reorganized itself around its pages. The project took twenty-five years to complete and employed over a hundred contributors, from Voltaire to anonymous artisans.