Allegories of Orders and Sciences, Pl. 76 — Encyclopédie

A hand-coloured engraving from Diderot and d'Alembert's monumental Encyclopédie, depicting allegorical emblems of nobility and the sciences.

Original French title: Allégories des Ordres et des Sciences. Designed by Louis-Jacques Goussier; engraved by Robert Bénard. From the Recueil de planches of the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, Plate 76. Published in Paris, c. 1770.

The Encyclopédie was a foundational project of the French Enlightenment, systematically compiling human knowledge and challenging traditional authority. Its thousands of plates documented crafts, sciences, and emblematic imagery, making abstract ideas visible to a broad readership and shaping the visual vocabulary of late eighteenth-century France.

Hand-coloured copperplate engraving. Sheet size approximately 45.7 × 34.1 cm. Excellent.