André le Breton
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André François le Breton (2 September 1708 – 5 October 1779) was a French publisher. He was one of the four publishers 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, along with Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durand, and Antoine-Claude Briasson. Le Breton contributed some articles to the ''Encyclopédie'' (see External links, below), but acted primarily as publisher and editor, often against Diderot's will. In 1745, le Breton set out to publish a translation of Ephraim Chambers' ''
Cyclopaedia Cyclopedia, cyclopaedia or cyclopedien is an archaic term for encyclopedia. The term may specifically refer to: *''Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences'', 1728, edited by Ephraim Chambers *''Rees's Cyclopædia'', 1802– ...
'' of 1728. He initially chose
Jean Paul de Gua de Malves Jean Paul de Gua de Malves (1713, Malves-en-Minervois (Aude) – June 2, 1785, Paris) was a French mathematician who published in 1740 a work on analytical geometry in which he applied it, without the aid of differential calculus, to find the tange ...
as his editor, but he tired of the job after two years, and in 1747, the editorship went to
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 ...
. For a more detailed account, see '' Encyclopédie''. With the assistance of his foreman
Louis-Claude Brullé Louis-Claude Brullé (died 8 January 1772 in Paris) was an 18th-century French printer and Encyclopédiste. From 1752 until 1765, Brullé was a foreman in the printing company of André le Breton, one of the four publishers of the '' Encyclopéd ...
, le Breton would occasionally censor articles in order to make them less radical, frequently drawing the ire of Diderot. For example, le Breton did not included a portion of Diderot's article "Menance" that indirectly attacked Joly de Fleury, the French police commissioner.Frankel, Charles. "The Censoring of Diderot's Encyclopedie and the Re-Established Text by Douglas H. Gordon, Norman L. Torrey". ''The Journal of Philosophy''. 44: 721–723 – via Jstor. Le Breton also censored Diderot by changing certain words to distort the meaning of the article. Diderot wrote le Breton a furious letter, in 1764, accusing him of having "massacred" the work and reduced it to a "hodge-podge of insipid clippings". According to
Friedrich Melchior Grimm Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm (26 September 172319 December 1807) was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers' ...
, writing in 1777, "The entire extent of the injury done by this unexampled, murderous, and infamous depredation will never be known, since the perpetrators of the crime burned the manuscript as soon as it was printed and left the evil without remedy." This claim has proved not to be true for, unknown to Grimm, le Breton had kept copies of the page proofs. This collection of final proofs totaled 318 pages. The collection of proofs is known as the "18th volume" of the ''Enclyopédie''. In the 20th century, these proofs were used to reveal the extent of le Breton's censorship, which was most prominent in the articles "Sarrasins ou Arabes" and "Pyrrhoniene philosophie." In addition, le Breton excluded three of Diderot's articles titled, "Sectes du Christianisme" and "Tolérance" as well as the subarticle "Théologie Scholastique". In the latter case, le Breton edited Diderot's original article to be less favorable towards Pierre Bayle, a 17th-century
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
whose views were deemed unacceptable. Bayle's views were deemed unacceptable because he was critical of the Church and its use of violence.


See also

*'' Encyclopédie'' * Denis Diderot * Jean le Rond d'Alembert


References

*Gordon, Douglas and Torrey, Norman, ''The censoring of Diderot's "Encyclopédie" and the re-established text." New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. *Wilson, Arthur M., ''An Unpublished Letter of Diderot, December 28, 1769.'' Modern Language Notes, Vol. 67, No. 7. (Nov., 1952), pp. 439–443. *Kafker, Frank A., ''The Recruitment of the Encyclopedists.'' Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4. (Summer, 1973), pp. 452–461.


External links


Encre noire
the Encyclopédie article written by le Breton (in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Breton Publishers (people) from Paris Printers from Paris 1708 births 1779 deaths Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772) Denis Diderot