41. Encyclopédie méthodique.
Encyclopédie méthodique, ou par ordre de matieres, par une Societé de
Gens de Lettres. Paris, 1782-1832.
Not now owned by the University, except for some volumes outside the
fine arts and a microfilm copy of the volumes on Musique.
Not completed until 1832, this encyclopedia was eventually to reach 102
numbers, or 337 parts, comprising 166½ volumes of quarto text and 51
parts of illustrations with a total of 6,439 plates. Jefferson's own set,
which he sold to Congress, contained 136½ volumes.
In 1828 the library had 162 of the volumes, probably all that had
been issued to that date. Of these, only the volumes concerning mathematics
are now in the collections, but these alone are enough to confirm
that the dating of the set in the printed Catalogue is wrong. The beginning
date of 1787 given there is almost certainly a misprint for 1782,
when the printing of the encyclopedia actually began.
Jefferson, presumably to distinguish the set from the alphabetically
arranged work of Diderot and D'Alembert, referred to it under the name
of its first publisher, Panckoucke. Since the present listing concerns the
fine arts, the following sections are relevant, and indeed, as Brunet
pointed out long ago, the volumes on the different subject matters have
for more than a century usually been sold separately:
Antiquités et mythologie. 10 parts in 5 vols., plus 2 vols. of 380
plates.
Architecture. 3 vols.
Art aratoire et jardinage. 1 vol. and 54 plates.
Arts et métiers. 16 parts in 8 vols., and 1,509 plates.
Beaux-arts. 2 parts in 4 vols., and 1 vol. of 115 plates.
Musique. 3 parts in 2 vols., with 188 plates.
U. Va.
M
Sowerby 4889
