Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot was born in Langres on 5 October 1713, the son of a master cutler. A pupil of the Jesuits, at first destined for the Church, he obtained his master of arts in Paris in 1732. Married in 1743 against his family's advice, he was imprisoned at Vincennes in 1749 for a piece of writing. For more than twenty years he directed the great encyclopaedic enterprise of the Enlightenment, brought to completion despite bans and d'Alembert's withdrawal. He sold his library to Catherine II in 1765, travelled to Russia in 1773 and died in Paris on 31 July 1784.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelJacques the Fatalist and His MasterJacques le Fataliste et son MaîtreDenis Diderot · 1796LiteraturePublic domain