[Dictionnaire des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres. Mis en ordre et publié par M***]. Recueil des planches, sur les sciences et les arts. Tome I.

Paris, Briasson, etc. 1762. Folio (39.5 x 25.3 cm). Letterpress half title, title page with engraved vignette, text and 269 plates. Contemporary uniform full calf. Spines wih six raised bands, rich gilt compartments and gilt titles. Marbled endpapers. Red edges. = This is a complete copy of the first folio atlas, in first edition, of the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, a massive work, edited and partly written by Diderot, d'Alembert and Voltaire, being the first true encyclopaedia, epitomizing the age of Enlightenment. Published between 1751 to 1772 it synthesed the knowledge of the time. it became not only a source of knowledge, but also a political weapon on the a battle ground for power between secular and ecclesiastical thinkers and writers. Included is a hand-written contemporary broadsheet with an index to the complete work. The following chapters - mainly on (old) professions - are present in this volume (text and plates): Agriculture et economie rustique; Aguillier, Aiguillier-Bonnetier - Amidonnier (Amydonnier); Anatomie; Antiquités; Architecture - Coupe des pierres - Plan . Moulin - Macines à forer - Maçonnerie - Carrier-Platrier - Tuilerie - Couvreur -Carreleur; Argenteur; Arnurier; Arquebusier; Art Militaire (incuding bis plate); Artificier. A very good, clean, unmarked copy.