Agriculture, Œconomie Rustique, Fabrique du Tabac (Manufacture of Tobacco) by DIDEROT, Denis - 1762

1762. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Plates vol. I Paris (1762) Folio, 253 x 393mm. 15 pages of descriptive text & 6 loose plates. Slight browning to margins, a little spotting otherwise very good. The 6 plates and descriptive text for the entry of Agriculture, Œconomie Rustique, Fabrique du Tabac from volume I of plates. The plates are numbered 1-6. 1 page (448) from volume III of the Encyclopédie (1753) including Singuliere façon de fumer usitée chez les Caraïbes des Antilles 1 page (652) from volume IV of the Encyclopédie (1754) including Débitans du tabac 1 page (374) from volume VI of the Encyclopédie (1756) including On émousse la faim en le fumant 1 page (812) from volume X of the Encyclopédie (1765) including Moulin à tabac 1 page (317) from volume XII of the Encyclopédie (1765) including Tabac mis à la pente 1 page (44) from volume XIV of the Encyclopédie (1765) including Tabac de rejetton 8 page (625 & 784-790) from volume XV of the Encyclopédie (1765) including Comment on fait suer les feuilles de cette plante 1 page (963) from volume III of the Supplément à l'Encyclopédie (1777) which includes Manufacture de tabac près de Morlaix With some browning to a few leaves. These six plates are comprised mainly of workshop scenes, each visually compelling and demonstrating the various stages involved in the production of tobacco and laying out the eighteenth-century methods used. Particularly interesting scenes show the large tobacco presses used, and diagrams at the foot of each plate usefully display the other equipment and tools employed. Several articles from the letterpress volumes accompany this suite. These were contributed by Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt, a polymath whose articles amount to around one quarter of the Encyclopédie and who turned his pen to almost any subject. Here he expertly tackles Tabac, its natural history, cultivation and manufacture. His other articles here deal more precisely with the gradients on which the plants are grown, the shoots and offspring of the crop, its sap, and the buildings and tools used when processed.