Frontispiece of the Encyclopédie

Benoît-Louis Prévost (1735–1804), Frontispiz der Encyclopédie, Gravur nach einer Zeichnung von Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715–1790), 1804; Bildquelle: Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Encyclopedie_frontispice_full.jpg?uselang=de, gemeinfrei.

This image appeared as the frontispiece in the Encyclopédie (taken from the 1772 edition) published by Diderot and d'Alembert. In this glorification of truth, symbols of various fields of science are depicted, such as instruments of the natural sciences and the texts and documents of the historian.

Benoît-Louis Prévost (1735–1804), Frontispiece of the Encyclopédie, engraving of a drawing by Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715–1790), 1804; source: Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Encyclopedie_frontispice_full.jpg?uselang=de, public domain.