Diderot et d'alembert

122517 — Paris 1771. Folio 253 x 393mm. 3 pages of descriptive text & 5 loose plates with their accompanying text sheet. Slight browning to margins a little spotting otherwise very good. § The 5 plates and descriptive text for the entry of Sculpture Fonte des Statues Équestres from volume VIII of plates. Plates are numbered 1-5. Plate 3 is continued on a second sheet Plate 4 is a double plate and plate 5 is a triple plate.1 page 822 from volume XIV of the Encyclopédie 1765 including Observations sur les chevaux des statues équestres2 pages 497 & 502 from volume XV of the Encyclopédie 1765 including information on Équestre StatueWith some browning to a few leaves.This suite of plates is noteworthy as a record of the practises of sculptors of this period. The illustrations and their explanations are influenced heavily by the writing and descriptions of Germain Boffrand. Boffrand had served as the first architect of numerous 18th-century noblemen and had been a witness to the casting of Louis XIV's statue by Giradon and Jean-Balthazar Keller. The statue was melted during the revolution and only a smaller model remains which can be found in the Musée du Louvre. On hearing of the troubles Lemoyne was having casting a similar statue of Louis XV Boffrand sought to assist Lemoyne recognising that he was the only remaining assistant who had taken notes at the earlier casting. Boffrand wrote his Description de ce qui a été Practiqué pour Fondre en Bronze d'un Seul Jet la Figure Équestre de Louis XIV enabling Lemoyne to complete his work although this statue was also later destroyed in the Revolution. Diderot's plates here presented are an almost exact copy of Boffrand's originals only shrunk and simplified to suit the Encylopédie's format.Included with these plates is the relevant entry for equestrian statues written by Jaucourt the 18th-century aristocrat who wrote around one quarter of the Encyclopédie voluntarily. unknown books