Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Romain (dates of birth and death unknown) was a French engineer and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' during the eighteenth century and the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

. Living in Martinique, in 1734 Le Romain drew up a topographic map of the island for the French government. In 1740 he was sent as an assistant engineer to improve the fortifications of the island of Grenada, where he was appointed chief engineer in 1748. Le Romain provided nearly seventy articles on the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

between volumes III and XVI of the ''Encyclopédie'' of

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominen ...

and D'Alembert. More than half of his articles are short descriptions of production, animals, minerals and geography of the Caribbean islands. He provided more detail of the production of regional products such as indigo, sugar and foods derived from

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...

. Le Romain also wrote the entry for '

negroes In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

' which reflects the colonial prejudices against blacks, referring to them as "barbarians". A competent naturalist, Le Romain's contributions gave Diderot and d'Alembert first-hand information on the Caribbean and thus an expanded view of the world for their ''Encyclopédie''. Frank A. Kafker: ''Notices sur les auteurs des dix-sept volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie. Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie.'' 1989, Volume 7, Numéro 7, p. 147
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References

External links

List of Le Romain's contributions to the ''Encyclopédie''
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Romain, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772) French engineers