''La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres, et des arts'' (''The Great Encyclopedia: a systematic inventory of science, letters, and the arts'') is a 31-volume

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

published in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

from 1886 to 1902 by H. Lamirault, and later by the Société Anonyme de la Grande Encyclopédie (Grande Encyclopédie Company). The general secretaries of its editorial board were

Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus (Paris, 19 August 1851 – 1905) was a French journalist and politician, unrelated to his contemporary Captain Alfred Dreyfus. After a classical and commercial education he prepared himself for the École Polytechnique, ...

and

André Berthelot André Marcel Berthelot (20 May 1862 – 6 June 1938) was the son of the chemist and politician Marcellin Berthelot and Sophie Berthelot and a député of the Seine. He was secretary-general of the Grande Encyclopédie starting with the fourth ...

. Major articles are signed and include a bibliography. In its 31 volumes of 1200 pages each, there are about 200,000 articles, 15,000 engraved illustrations and 200 maps. From the Preface: In the article "Encyclopédie": According to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

catalog record, the individual volumes were published in the following years: 1-2: 1886, 3-4: 1887, 4: 1887, 5-6: 1888, 7-8: 1889, 8: 1889, 9-11: 1890, 12-13: 1891, 14-16: 1892, 17-18: 1893, 19-20: 1894, 21: 1895, 22: 1896, 23: 1898, 24-26: 1899, 27-8: 1900, 29-30: 1901, 31: 1902.

External links

*A scan of the full text is available at Gallica

The article title ranges are given in the volume titles; there is no direct way to go to a particular article. * French encyclopedias 1886 non-fiction books 20th-century encyclopedias 19th-century encyclopedias {{encyclopedia-stub