The business of enlightenment : a publishing history of the Encyclopedie, 1775-1800 / Robert Darnton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Darnton, Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Encyclopedias and dictionaries, French.

Encyclopédie.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (638 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Belknap Press, 1979.

Summary:

A great book about an even greater book is a rare event in publishing. Darnton's history of the Encyclopedie is such an occasion. The author explores some fascinating territory in the French genre of histoire du livre , and at the same time he tracks the diffusion of Enlightenment ideas. He is concerned with the form of the thought of the great philosophies as it materialized into books and with the way books were made and distributed in the business of publishing. This is cultural history on a broad scale, a history of the process of civilization. In tracing the publishing story of Diderot's Encyclopedie , Darnton uses new sources--the papers of eighteenth-century publishers--that allow him to respond firmly to a set of problems long vexing historians. He shows how the material basis of literature and the technology of its production affected the substance and diffusion of ideas. He fully explores the workings of the literary market place, including the roles of publishers, book dealers, traveling salesmen, and other intermediaries in cultural communication. How publishing functioned as a business, and how it fit into the political as well as the economic systems of prerevolutionary Europe are set forth. The making of books touched on this vast range of activities because books were products of artisanal labor, objects of economic exchange, vehicles of ideas, and elements in political and religious conflict. The ways ideas traveled in early modern Europe, the level of penetration of Enlightenment ideas in the society of the Old Regime, and the connections between the Enlightenment and the French Revolution are brilliantly treated by Darnton. In doing so he unearths a double paradox. It was the upper orders in society rather than the industrial bourgeoisie or the lower classes that first shook off archaic beliefs and took up Enlightenment ideas. And the state, which initially had suppressed those ideas, ultimately came to favor them. Yet at this high point in the diffusion and legitimation of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution erupted, destroying the social and political order in which the Enlightenment had flourished. Never again will the contours of the Enlightenment be drawn without reference to this work. Darnton has written an indispensable book for historians of modern Europe.

Contents:

I. Introduction: The Biography of a Book II. The Genesis of a Speculation in Publishing The Neuchatel Reprint Plan From the Reprint to the Revised Edition Joseph Duplain and His Quarto Encyclopedie Publishing, Politics, and Panckoucke From the Revised Edition to the Quarto The Paris Conference of 1777 The Basis of a Bonne Affaire III. Juggling Editions The "Second Edition" The Origins of the "Third Edition" Imbroglios The Neuchatel Imprint Opening Gambits of the Final Negotiations Duel by Lettre Ostensible The Last Turn of the Screw The Contract IV. Piracy and Trade War Pirate Raids The Octavo Publishers and Their Encyclopedie The Origins of the Quarto-Octavo War The Final Failure of Diplomacy Open War Pourparlers for Peace A Drole de Paix V. Bookmaking Strains on the Production System Procuring Paper Copy Recruiting Workers Setting Wages Pacing Work and Managing Labor Printing: Technology and the Human Element VI. Diffusion Managerial Problems and Polemics Marketing Booksellers Prices and Consumers The Sales Pattern Subscribers, A Case Study Diffusion in France Diffusion Outside France Reading VII. Settling Accounts The Hidden Schism of 1778 A Preliminary Reglement de Comples The Feud Between Duplain and the STN Marketing Maneuvers The Perrin Affair The Anatomy of a Swindle The Final Confrontation in Lyons Denouement Epilogue VIII. The Ultimate Encyclopedie The Origins of the Encyclopedie Methodique The Climactic Moment in Enlightenment Publishing The Liegeois Settlement Panckoucke's Conception of the Supreme Encyclopedie Panckoucke as an Editor The Authors of the Methodique Two Generations of Encyclopedists From Voltairianism to Professionalism Launching the Biggest Book of the Century IX. Encyclopedism, Capitalism, and Revolution Panckoucke 's Folly From Encyclopedism to Jacobinism An Enlightenment Publisher in a Cultural Revolution The Last of the Encyclopedists X. Conclusion The Production and Diffusion of Enlightenment Enlightenment Publishing and the Spirit of Capitalism The Encyclopedie and the State The Cultural Revolution Appendices A. Contracts of the Encyclopedie Publishers, 1776-1780 B. Subscriptions to the Quarto Encyclopedie C. Incidence of Subscriptions in Major French Cities D. Contributors to the Encyclopedie Methodique Bibliographical Note Index

Notes:

Includes bibliography and index.

ISBN:

0-674-03018-4

OCLC:

923110475