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Denis Diderot - Encyclopaedia, Published between 1751 and 1772 (in 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of engravings)

Diderot began work on the Encyclopaedia in 1746. It occupied more than twenty years of his life.

Many of the contributors were those radical thinkers who embodied the ideal of reason and enlightenment and the coming revolution in France.

It was compiled and written under constant threat of censorship and surveillance. During his editorship Diderot was arrested and imprisoned for three months.

Its motivating principles are freedom of thought and criticism of authority, and it was written in a language intended for everyone's understanding.

Engels wrote of him, "If ever anybody dedicated his whole life to the enthusiasm for truth and justice...it was Diderot."