(, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an
editorial collection of
illustrated
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
monograph
A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
ic books published by the
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003, it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by G ...
in
pocket format. The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, written by experts and intended for a general audience.
Created in the style of ''
livre d'art
(French for ''art books'' or ''books of art''), otherwise referred to as (French for ''gallery books''), are books in which the illustration holds a predominant place in relation to the text. They often require high quality papers as they belo ...
'', the collection is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper, as commented in ''
L'Express
(, stylized in all caps) is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre-right in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''R� ...
'', "genuine monographs, published like art books".
Its creator—
Pierre Marchand the "
iconophile", as remarked by the German graphic designer Raymond Stoffel—was instrumental in moulding the policy and ideals of the collection, which was an immediate success both in France and internationally.
The first title (English edition: ''
The Search for Ancient Egypt'') appeared on 21 November 1986, authored by the French Egyptologist
Jean Vercoutter.
These scholarly little books then released in successive volumes, without a systematic plan, each of which is structured like a separate book (see
monographic series
Monographic series (alternatively, monographs in series) are scholarly and scientific books released in successive volumes, each of which is structured like a separate book or scholarly monograph.
Semantics
In general books that are released ser ...
). 588 titles were published by November 2012, with more than 160 volumes of spin-offs and catalogues as of 2021.
Overview
The books are printed using
A6 format (125 × 178 mm), according to ''
Encyclopædia Universalis'', "with breathtaking iconography (illustration)" reproduced on thick and glossy coated paper,
from which leap two or three images per page. In this picture-dense format, the authors must squeeze their words in edgewise. Each book is composed of a monograph on a particular topic, the whole collection covers all areas of human knowledge and experience, such as archaeology, art, culture, civilisation, history, music, religion, science, et cetera, with 502 specialists' contributions.
Chronological narrative is the principal structure for describing a subject, for example, the title (UK ed. ''The Sky: Order and Chaos''), which narrated in chronological order to present the varied subjects relating to the sky above and peoples' perception of it, through historical perspective of cultural, social and religious aspects.
The
captions for illustrations must be informative, they should not duplicate information in the
body text, nor do they interrupt the
narrative thread
A narrative thread, or plot thread (or, more ambiguously, a storyline), refers to particular elements and techniques of writing to center the story in the action or experience of characters rather than to relate a matter in a dry "all-knowing" sor ...
. Researchers and academics must adhere to the constraints of a mainstream collection. Apart from obvious analytical abilities, authors are expected to write quality text and a sensitivity to illustration. A "Découvertes" is not a book of authorship, the author is only one of the many speakers.
Bruno Blasselle, director of the
Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, author of two volumes of ('History of Book', and ), and co-author of the title , explained his experience of working for the collection: "For an author, to write a ''Découvertes'' title is to be trapped, to put oneself in a situation of being obliged to go beyond his/her own formulation."
The cover design is one of the specificities. The old covers are glossy with black background illustrated in colour, the newer covers are matt-laminated rather than glossy,
but more colourful, with different
colour codes according to the subject matter. It differs from other reference books by its visual: a full-size picture, with its framing and the power of figurative elements, also a picture well-matched to the inside
page layout
In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives.
The high-level page layout involves deciding on the ...
, with a tiny, relevant picture illustrating the spine. The visual identity is strong, one can even easily recognise the collection's international editions. However, there are some exceptions, for instance, the
Barcelonese publisher
Ediciones B adopted a completely different cover design for their collection .
Each title contains 128–224 pages with approximately 120–220 illustrations printed in four, five, six, or seven colours, both matte and glitter, and sometimes even
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, as in the title ,
the metallic gold heightens
Carl Otto Czeschka
Carl Otto Czeschka (22 October 1878 – 30 July 1960) was an Austrian painter and graphic designer associated with the Wiener Werkstätte.
Life
Carl Otto Czeschka was half Bohemian and half Moravian origin. His father Wenzel Czeschka ...
's illustrations from . Each book begins with 8–10 full-page illustrations or photographs, prefaced by a pull-quote on the inside front cove, which
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
director Jamie Camplin calls it a "cinema-influenced trailer"
(designated as ''
pré-générique'' in French). For the title ''
Champollion : Un scribe pour l'Égypte'', this book opens with a succession of reproductions of
Champollion's manuscript ''
Grammaire égyptienne''; in ''
L'Europe des Celtes'' (), the reader is greeted by a series of bronze masks and hoary faces carved in stone;
the "trailer" for () evokes the tragic launch of the
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' in 1986; while that of () presents the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
at every stage of its construction.
The novelty lies in the subtle orchestration of the text and the illustration, where successive sequences, inserts and foldouts overlapping in double pages.
According to the subject, the body text (designated as in French) is structured into three to eight chapters, consisting of 64 (in the case of the title ) to 128 pages (most of the titles). Each chapter is built using journalistic methods, with a
lead paragraph
A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; in the United States sometimes spelled lede) is the opening paragraph of an article, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes its main ideas. Styles vary widely among the different types an ...
and intertitle. The is punctuated by double-page spreads of images, known as inserts, sort of a halt for pictures. For the title ('Fear of Wolves'), two double-page spreads of reproductions of
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...
's engravings to illustrate ''
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...
''. These books benefit a lot from journalistic and cinematographic techniques, some titles include
panoramic
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word ...
foldouts, kind of projection on big screen. Two foldouts in the title , one showing
Léon Jaussely's reconstruction of the
forum of
Pompeii
Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...
, the other representing the actual condition of the
theatre quarter in 1859 by using
Paul-Émile Bonnet's drawings, both in a panoramic view. In the title ('The Paper: A Daily Adventure'), through a partnership with paper companies, there are even three luxurious foldouts that all made on different papers from
Arjo Wiggins, presenting one of the century watercolours on the traditional manufacture of Chinese paper; the other of the engravings and drawings by
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...
and
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
; the third depicts today's paper production line with its different machines.
Unlike the in colour, the second part—the "Documents" section ()—is always printed in black and white. It works as an anthology, providing more specialised texts from relevant authors, excerpts, historical records, among others. It contains files made jointly by the author or the publisher, with lead paragraph to link texts and short captions for each file. According to the subject, an annex concludes "Documents" section with a chronology, a filmography, a discography or a bibliography, with a "List of Illustrations" () giving full details of the sources of illustrations, an alphabetical index, as well as photo credits, dedicated to those who want to go deeper into the subject.
The collection also stands out for its attention to detail. On the choice of typeface, for example,
Trump Mediaeval for body text,
ITC Franklin Gothic for titling,
Zapf Dingbats
ITC Zapf Dingbats is one of the more common dingbat typefaces. It was designed by the typographer Hermann Zapf in 1978 and licensed by International Typeface Corporation.
History
In 1977, Zapf created about 1000 (or over 1200 according to Lin ...
for
guillemets,
italic for captions with an
initial
In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...
and the last line is underlined, et cetera. The French editions are printed by Kapp Lahure Jombart in
Évreux
Évreux () is a commune in and the capital of the department of Eure, in the French region of Normandy.
History Antiquity
In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century AD, was named '' Mediolanum Aulercorum'', "the central town ...
, while the Italian printer Gianni Stavro, who has largely contributed to the elaboration of new techniques used in the collection, retains his position as collaborator for international reissues and coeditions. The bindings are solid, sewn and not glued.
As Gallimard's promise to their readers, "the most beautiful pocket collection in the world" ().
The collection formerly consisted of eighteen series—, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and —which have been abandoned, it is now reorganised around seven major subjects with colour codes: (red), (brown), (blue), (white), (dark blue), (yellow) and (green).
History
''Découvertes Gallimard'' was born in
Gallimard Jeunesse, based on an idea by
Pierre Marchand after the publications of two pocket collections: ''Découvertes Cadet'' in 1983 and ''Découvertes Benjamin'' in 1984. These three Découvertes collections cater to three levels: grades 4 to 6 (''Découvertes Benjamin''), grades 7 to 9 (''Découvertes Cadet''), and grades 10 and up (''Découvertes Gallimard''). This pocket encyclopaedia initially named ('The Paths of Knowledge'), Pierre Marchand already had the idea when he entered Gallimard in 1972, as he explained: "I have invested fourteen years of my professional life in this collection. Thanks to the success of '
choose your own adventure books' that we were able to embark on this adventure.
..For the first time, genuine encyclopaedias in pocket format.
..Our bet is that once you open the book, no matter what subject you read or which page you are on, you can no longer close it."
Françoise Balibar,
Jean-Pierre Maury,
Jean-Pierre Verdet,
Marc Meunier-Thouret and some others were the first to experience this pharaonic project that would await the arrival of
Élisabeth de Farcy and
Paule du Bouchet, in 1981, for truly to take shape. To producing genuine encyclopaedias in pocket format and fully illustrated in colour, in that time, many judged such an editorial project insane.
In November 1986, however, the collection was released at Gallimard and directed by Élisabeth de Farcy. She chose authors and organised iconographic campaigns, several editors and iconographers were then gathered, copious "iconographies" (illustrations) were extracted from
heritage
Heritage may refer to:
History and society
* A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...
resources. Élisabeth explained in an interview with : "The image should occupy a central place, as in a work of art."
The authors were sceptical about this project at first, even contemptuous, but they have eventually been fascinated by the collection. Some have even authored several books, such as
Françoise Cachin, curator of the
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
, author of three books – (), (), (); the physicist
Jean-Pierre Maury, who wrote four titles – (), (), () and (); or the historian of religion , who published seven books in the collection.
A preview edition, or "zero edition" () was sent to 500 booksellers during the summer of 1986.
The collection was officially released on 21 November of the same year. The first twelve titles, twenty-five thousand copies of each volume were printed. "We've never seen so many things between the first and last pages of a book" is the slogan proposed by Pascal Manry's advertising agency
CLM BBDO for the launch of the collection. Without market research at the start, Pierre Marchand, a self-taught man, explained on the television programme ': "This project was as old as my thirst for knowledge. No doubt it is necessary to be precisely self-taught to sense the importance of an encyclopaedia. We must have been forced to build our own culture, to seek reliable references, to make clear statements. To conceive 'Découvertes', I didn't need market research, surveys or tests. Right from the start, I wanted to give the public the books I needed." Although "Découvertes" was reserved for youth at the beginning, it was eventually launched for the general adult public.
The collection then had a rapid-growth, 105 titles appeared in five years. The first international collaboration was started with the
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
-based Spanish publisher in 1989, and 19 countries would finally be associated with the project.
In 1992, after 151 titles have been published, Gallimard showed interest in the work on
mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are ...
and
Siren () by , a
Belgian Dutch-language writer. Nevertheless, the Parisian publishing house hesitated, "interesting subject, but how can you illustrate that?" Then De Donder showed a list of about one thousand images that he gathered over years, Gallimard was convinced and made him the first non-French-language author published in the collection.
In the heyday of "Découvertes" at the turn of the 1990s, authors were mainly recruited from
academics
Academic means of or related to an academy, an institution learning.
Academic or academics may also refer to:
* Academic staff, or faculty, teachers or research staff
* school of philosophers associated with the Platonic Academy in ancient Greece ...
and
curator
A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
s. Numerous artist monographs were often published on the occasions of major exhibitions, with a predilection for painters and musicians. Such as the title was released for the exhibition "
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
1904–1917" at the
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
in 1993;
and Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac's ''Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun'' (from "Hors série") was on sale at the exhibit of
Vigée Le Brun's paintings in New York City at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
. Or reactivity in relation to current events, for instance, the title ''
Sang pour sang, le réveil des vampires'' was published on 5 January 1993 for the release of
Francis Coppola's ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...
'' in France; and () for the release of the French film ''
Germinal''; () for the
bicentennial __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
* French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
of the
CNAM; () was on sale on the occasion of "
Yves Saint Laurent retrospective" at the
Petit Palais
The (; ) is an art museum in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France.
Built for the Exposition Universelle (1900), 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition"), it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (''Musée des beaux-arts ...
in 2010. Some works were launched within an extremely limited time frame, such as (), for the inauguration of the
Louvre Pyramid
The Louvre Pyramid () is a large glass-and-metal entrance way and skylight designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyr ...
in 1989; and () for the
Opéra Bastille in 1990, both completed in six to eight weeks instead of the usual two or three months. Alongside many works dictated by current events, there are also a number of "strange curiosities", such as a book devoted to red hair ( – ), which is unusual in this type of collection.
Some subjects can be more difficult to sell but considered necessary, such as the
perspective ( – ), images of human body ( – ) and
mannerism
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...
( – ).
But in recent years, there were more monographs on memoirs of places and large institutions instead of artists, as well as various sociological and religious aspects, for instance, a book on the
history of New York City
The written history of New York City began with the first European explorer, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1528. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1608 and New Amsterdam was founded in 1624.
The " Sons of Liberty" campaigned ...
by
Jerome Charyn, which is translated and adapted from his English work ''Metropolis: New York as Myth, Marketplace, and Magical Land'' ( – ); titles on
agrifood ( – ), on
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...
( – ), or on
drugs
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...
( – ); titles about
Marian devotions
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...
and
apparition ( – & – ), about
Christian saints
In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...
and
Sufism
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
( – & – ). And also numerous volumes devoted to writers, for example, the title .
Difficult subjects were frequently in demand, possibly because there was less competition. Thus a book on the
Cistercian monks ( – ) was one of the bestsellers in 1990. While the others like (, about
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...
) or (, about
pirates) are presumably subjects more common and popular, were relative failures. Generally, the most popular titles are those from and series, the title ''
À la recherche de l'Égypte oubliée'' and the title ''
L'écriture, mémoire des hommes''—both in series—remain two of the bestsellers.
As of 2001, the former would have sold more than five hundred thousand copies worldwide. As for the series, there are only four most favoured titles: (), (), () and ().
Competition has emerged as early as in the middle of the 1990s, with a gradual decrease in circulation and novelties, but partially offset by the sub-collection entitled , which is one of the five spin-offs.
Today, about fifteen old titles are updated every year according to current cultural and scientific research. As general history plays a central role in "Découvertes Gallimard", completed by archaeology, art history and science, richly accompanied by unpublished illustrations, thus it forms a solid editorial base.
On 25 March 1994, a celebration was held at the
Musée national des Monuments Français
The Musée national des Monuments Français (; ) is today a museum of plaster casts of French monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France. It now forms part of the Cité de l'Architectur ...
, for the publication of the title .
The collection experienced two successive redesigns, one in September 1998 ( – ) for exterior model (colour of the back cover, more explicit signage), and the other in March 2000 ( – ) for interior page layout.
Those reeditions underwent a decrease in page length, due to the reformulation introduced in the "Documents" section. The collection, which was too soon associated with a
zapping visual culture
Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology.
The field of vi ...
, reaffirmed its first purpose: the image does not take precedence over the text, but combined with text to animate and enrich the reading.
These books benefit from the latest technologies, with their mockups are all made using desktop publishing now. Since the
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and p ...
software was only released in 1987, the first 30 titles were made in a traditional way, with phototypesetting. The current price of a "Découvertes" book is between 8.40 and 15.90
euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
s (
£7.95 in UK,
$12.95–$14.95 in US and
$19.95 in Canada) according to its category and number of pages, this is considered an extremely low price for a book of this quality.
The collection, totalling 588 volumes, is never entirely translated into another language, partial translations have been made available in 19 languages
(currently more than 20 languages, see "
International editions"). "This inexpensive pocket encyclopaedia embodies its humanistic dream: to make the most advanced state of knowledge available to everyone.
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 along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...
and
D'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...
would not have denied it...", commented by Hedwige Pasquet, current directress of Gallimard Jeunesse.
According to ', these "French-style nonfictions" () have sold over twenty million copies worldwide as of 1999,
with recently emerging markets in Asia and Eastern Europe, especially in Russia, about 100 titles have been published within four years. In 2002, during a presentation of "Découvertes Gallimard" in Moscow, the French ambassador to Russia
Claude Blanchemaison told a
Kommersant
(, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...
correspondent that he just finished reading ' (), one of the latest titles from the collection at the time, which he found particularly interesting.
In order to remedy the problems of international proprietaries and reproduction rights of works of art, co-publishers firstly define a number of titles, then they choose according to their own editorial line, and share the high cost of worldwide photographic rights. Therefore,
Harry N. Abrams in the United States chose more titles on traditional cultural subjects, such as ''
À la recherche de la Rome antique'' () or ''
La Naissance de la Grèce'' (); while in Japan, the publisher prefers original titles, such as the title ('Witches: Fiancées of Satan'), and the title ('The Hour of the Great Passage: Chronicle of Death'). The
Madrilenian publisher Aguilar was the first one among "Découvertes"' international co-publishers since 1989, the first 12 titles for the Spanish collection were released in the same year. In Italy, the publisher Electa/Gallimard produced 128 titles within seven years; in Japan, the title for their series ('Rediscovery of Knowledge') has been published in early 2017. In addition, foreign editions are usually co-printed to amortise fees and support countries with small circulation.
In addition to foreign publishers, ''Découvertes Gallimard'' has also been involved in national institutional partnerships for several years, notably the one held since 1989 with the
Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN): thirty-two titles have been released (as of 2001), plus a title in English dedicated to
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French Landscape art, landscape and Portraitist, portrait painter as well as a printmaking, printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in ...
( – ''Corot: Extraordinary landscapes''), the boxed set (1994) and four books in the "Hors série". The principle of these co-editions is based on a sharing of costs and revenues, the RMN brings its knowledge of museums and distribution network, while the publisher brings its editorial competence. When a title is linked to an exhibition, it generates a lot of additional sales through the RMN. Other partnerships with public or private companies, such as the
French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission ( – ),
Crédit Mutuel ( – ),
L'Oréal
L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris ( – ), paper industries ( – ), et cetera. The partner is sometimes explicitly indicated in the "acknowledgments" (), but it is most often mentioned equivocally (), even modestly kept in silence ( – ).
Nonfiction book publishing has been in decline in France for several years,
market saturation
In economics, market saturation is a situation in which a Product (business), product has become Diffusion_(business), diffused (distributed) within a Market (economics), market; the actual level of saturation can depend on consumer purchasing p ...
is one of the causes, competition from other medias is another, especially from the internet. Despite its excellent image to the public, ''Découvertes Gallimard'' is also concerned by this disaffection. It remains an indisputable success internationally, but in France, the sales are eroding. The number of new productions decreases and also the prints. On 1 March 1999, the creator of ''Découvertes'', Pierre Marchand, after working for 27 years at Gallimard, left to become a
creative director
A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...
at
Hachette. This was no doubt a big loss to the collection, but with more than 10 years of experience and a rich fund created over years, ''Découvertes'' finally surpassed the difficulties.
The end of 2006 is marked by the celebration of the collection's anniversary and the publication of its title . A website was specially created on this occasion, which is the current official website ''
http://www.decouvertes-gallimard.fr''. On the occasion of Éditions Gallimard's
centenary
A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century.
Notable events
Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include:
* Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
in 2011, the title ('Gallimard: A Publisher at Work') was launched as the first e-book for iPad of "Découvertes".
This was followed by an e-book collection consisting of ''
À la recherche de l'Égypte oubliée'', , , ''
Léonard de Vinci : Art et science de l'univers'', and in the next year.
Image
Image (illustration, designated as in French) is the essential part to ''Découvertes Gallimard'', the collection draws much inspiration from magazine
layout
In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement.
Specifically, layout may refer to:
* Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page
** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...
designs. Full colour pictures, documentary illustrations, archival photographs, historical maps occupy a central place in this work, as said Pierre Marchand himself: "the language of images is a universal language". But in the 1980s,
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...
and photo digitisation did not exist, the sophisticated mockups were entirely handmade and the iconographers ran around museums, libraries, painting galleries and other agencies to look for documents. Today, the technology has simplified all these procedures but the difficulty lies elsewhere, the status of the image is increasingly complex.
Contemporary subjects often generate much higher costs since the publisher is obliged to work with photographic agencies. In the choice of documents, priority is given to those original, unpublished images. Besides, the iconographers of ''Découvertes'' have some exceptional documents, such as English explorer
Frederick Catherwood
Frederick Catherwood (27 February 1799 – 27 September 1854) was an English artist, architect and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th ...
's original drawings of
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (East Africa), a p ...
ruins decorate the title ''
Les cités perdues des Mayas''.
It's not difficult to illustrate subjects like arts, civilisations, archaeology... But when it comes to a topic like "
pain
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
" ( – ) or "
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
" ( – ), it becomes more delicate. The question is how to avoid repetitiveness or the flatly illustrative image, the solution lies in a broadening field, through the use of historical documents, works of art and
film still
A film still (sometimes called a publicity still or a production still) is a photograph, taken on or off the set of a Film, movie or television program during Film production, production. These photographs are also taken in formal studio settings ...
s.
Case study of aestheticisation movement
The
aestheticisation of
postmodern
Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...
everyday life, according to sociologists
Michel Maffesoli and
Mike Featherstone, it seems to spring from two parallel movements rooted in modernity, the so-called "dual postmodern aestheticisation movement": first an aesthetic
hedonism
Hedonism is a family of Philosophy, philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is Motivation, motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of Psycholo ...
(Maffesoli) and second the trivialisation of art (Featherstone). The second movement is the result of the de-
academisation and de-
institutionalisation
In sociology, institutionalisation (or institutionalization) is the process of embedding some conception (for example a belief, norm, social role, particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a w ...
of art, thus "art is part of everyday life". ''Découvertes Gallimard'' is considered an example of 'art as part of everyday life' within this study.
Pierre Marchand, Head of
Gallimard Jeunesse who created the new kind of artistic encyclopaedia with a dynamic layout, that would be as much a magazine as an encyclopaedia. It has been commented by a Gallimard employee that Découvertes "seduces like a magazine but has the length of a book", kind of an objectified and specialised luxury magazine. A lot of work and research have been done on the reproduction of images and the choice of illustrations, often unpublished documents like antique engravings, old photos, on all types of themes. In this collection, all books share the same concept as to layout and looks, each book itself could become a work of art rather than only its substitute. It is coupled with up-to-date editing equipment, organisational innovations and a constant pursuit of higher printing quality at lower cost. A more friendship than business relationship between Marchand and the Italian printer Gianni Stavro has advanced the state of the art in printing. The suppliers of "Découvertes" are supposed to cooperate between themselves, "for instance, the French printer had a problem concerning the pigments, so the Italian printer invited him over to explain how he could solve the problem", explained by a Gallimard employee.
Pierre Marchand might not be an "Artistic Master", but he is almost considered as such by his employees. "Découvertes"' staff work like a team, where everybody is concerned with everything at the same time. They share the same culture and values, their office is intentionally built like a vessel, with Marchand as captain on the bridge, and anyone, at any time, is free to contribute with his/her own ideas about authors, pictures, front covers..., and becomes leader of a project.
Spin-offs
* : Literally 'Another History of the Century'. A closed series within ''Découvertes Gallimard'' collection released in 1999, consisting of ten volumes for ten decades, authored by French historian and based on the
Gaumont cinematographic archives.
* : A sub-collection published since 1994, the title roughly translates as 'off-series' or 'off-collection'. "Hors série" books are even smaller (120 × 170 mm, generally, but not always), each one consists of 48 pages with full colour illustrations. These books are designed like museum guide booklets, according to Gallimard, "" ('books to visit like an exhibition'). Most of them are dedicated to artists like
Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...
,
Arcimboldo,
Fragonard,
Soutine,
Le Gray, et cetera, during major exhibitions devoted to them.
* : A sub-collection consists of 13 volumes, 12 volumes released in 1992 and one in 1994, a larger format (210 × 270 mm) is used for them.
* : A 6-volume sub-collection released in 1998 (124 × 178 mm), inspired by the "Documents" section at the back of every ''Découvertes'' book.
* : A sub-collection of exhibition booklets created in 2018, with the smaller format (120 × 170 mm).
The "Hors série" books are often coupled with art exhibitions and it works well. While the other attempts to diversify the collection have often resulted in resounding commercial failures, such as the "Albums" and "Texto". Despite an interesting concept: the use of
still images from Gaumont archives for "Une autre histoire du XX
e siècle", this series has had mixed success.
English edition
A small portion of the collection has been translated into English, published by
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
in United Kingdom under the title ''New Horizons'' series, which launched its first titles in 1992 with the slogan, "the expanding universe between two covers". According to Thames & Hudson director Jamie Camplin, the remit is to "
educate in an entertaining way".
Paul Gottlieb, former director and editor in chief of the New York-based publisher
Abrams Books
Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery.
The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher Média-Participations. Run by president and CEO Mar ...
(then called Harry N. Abrams), discovered Pierre Marchand's "Découvertes" at the Gallimard stand during the
Bologna Book Fair in 1991, which he called "a dazzling array of books" and an "imaginative combination of text and pictures in a magnificently produced series of paperback books". He began to negotiate for English language translation. The collection was eventually titled ''Abrams Discoveries'' series by the U.S. publisher. They began to publish in the spring of 1992, and more than 100 titles were produced by 2008.
The two publishers shared the translation costs, the American edition was then re-edited to take into account
English spelling
English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, allowing readers and writers to associate written graphemes with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. English's orthograp ...
, or vice versa.
Unlike the numbered French edition, American and British editions are not put into numerical order. UK edition's book spines have titles in white with black background, while the more Gallimard-style US edition has titles in colour and sometimes with decorative features, such as an for ''Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh'' and a for ''Heraldry: An Introduction to a Noble Tradition''.
Apart from spelling and punctuation differences, certain titles of American edition have additional explanation placed in parentheses within the body text. For instance, in ''
The Celts: Conquerors of Ancient Europe'': "Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic)" (), "Gaelic (meaning an Irish or Scottish Celt)" (), or "Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)" (); whereas in the British version ''The Celts: First Masters of Europe'', has no such additional information. Besides, the texts are not entirely identical. As for the "Documents" section, though some co-publishers print the entire French version, Thames & Hudson reformulates this part, tailoring the material to suit the nuances of the UK market.
Reception
French weekly magazine ''
Télérama
''Télérama'' is a weekly French language, French cultural and television magazine published in Paris, France. The name is a contraction of its earlier title: ''Télévision-Radio-Cinéma''. Fabienne Pascaud is currently managing editor. Ludovic ...
'' praised "Découvertes Gallimard", described the work as: "they borrow suspense from the cinema, have efficiency of the journalism, literary temperament is their charm, and art is their beauty".
''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
'' magazine remarked the collection "a lively interweaving of simple text and clever pictures". In his review for ''
Die Zeit
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The first edition of was ...
'', the German literary scholar and historian wrote that the collection is an "adventure stands for surprise, excitement and amusement. Boredom is already prevented by the curiosity of vivid illustrations which are accompanied by detailed explanations".
Rick Poynor wrote in ''
Eye
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system.
In higher organisms, the ey ...
'' magazine that the collection "is one of the great projects of contemporary popular publishing".
Raleigh Trevelyan's article in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' mentioned ''D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy'' from "Abrams Discoveries" series, said "all volumes in the 'Discoveries' series are ingeniously designed". Art critic
John Russell considered these books contain unique information, such as
Aelian's authority on the musicality of the elephant or the precise look of
Halley's Comet
Halley's Comet is the only known List of periodic comets, short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, appearing every 72–80 years, though with the majority of recorded apparitions (25 of 30) occurring after ...
as it was depicted in 1835.
Eduardo Gudiño Kieffer of ''
La Nación
''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal ''Clarín (Argentine newspaper), Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argen ...
'' also gave the collection a positive review, writing, "The books are excellent assistants for intellectuals, writers, journalists and students of different aspects of the culture,
..they contain accurate and pithy information.
..They obtain a cognitive 'duration' difficult to achieve in the
mediatic fugacity." The Spanish newspaper ''
El País
(; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...
'': "Those books combine an important 'Documents' section with an original thematic concept. It's obviously a work of education and popularisation, but popularisation of very good level." The Brazilian newspapers – ''
Folha de S.Paulo'': "What is most striking in the collection, however, is not the eclecticism or the unusual themes—usually developed by French experts—but the format and the iconographic content thereof."; ': "almost like a luxury comic magazine and of exquisite taste".
According to the French magazine ''
L'Expansion
''L'Expansion'' was a French former monthly business magazine based in Paris, France, which existed between 1967 and 2017.
History and profile
''L'Expansion'' was founded by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Jean Boissonnat in 1967. In 1994 the m ...
'', some other positive reviews including ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'': "A brand-new and daring collection"; ''
Die Zeit
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The first edition of was ...
'': "As soon as you open these handy books, you can not get away from them anymore"; ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'': "A collection that recalls nineteenth-century encyclopaedias, where intelligence went hand in hand with curiosity". The French news magazine ''
L'Express
(, stylized in all caps) is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre-right in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''R� ...
'': "Genuine monographs, published like art books, offered in pocket format and sold at an affordable price.
..'Découvertes' changed the face of
encyclopaedism
Encyclopedism is an outlook that aims to include a wide range of knowledge in a single work. The term covers both encyclopedias themselves and related genres in which comprehensiveness is a notable feature. The word encyclopedia is a Latinization ...
and art book, adapting the book to the era of 'zapping'."
'—a French bimonthly journal—referred to the collection as a "classic". It is also included by ', a French weekly magazine, as one of six collections that marked the history of French publishing.
Despite all the favours to its quality and attractive visual design, the collection suffers from a problem of identity in bookshops: where to put these books? With books for youth or books for adults? As pocket books or human science reference books? And opt for a thematic scattering on the shelves. Many booksellers renounce the displays that were exclusively reserved for "Découvertes" due to high competition. All the more so because a rather tight inventory management at Gallimard, the complete titles are never available at the same time, which is not appreciated by the customers. The problem of identification is also latent in print media, the journalists, even if they are personally delighted to receive the new titles from a press agent, would not be too enthusiastic about presenting a simple pocket book in their articles, even if it's a brand new title and not a reprint.
List of English-translated volumes
Documentary adaptation
Documentary adaptations of "Découvertes Gallimard" started in 1997, the project is a co-production of
Arte France and
Trans Europe Film, and in collaboration with Éditions Gallimard. These 52-minute films are produced as part of ''
The Human Adventure
''The Human Adventure'' is a game written by William F. Denman, Jr. and published by Med Systems Software in 1980 for the TRS-80 and Apple II
Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ] '', a documentary television programme of
is a series of microcomputers manufac ...
'', a documentary television programme of Arte. Nine of them were directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky">Arte"> is a series of microcomputers manufac ...