Diderot

It is hard to over-estimate the scope and ambition of the Encyclopedie. Published in two decades after 1751, it was the single greatest publishing enterprise of the European Enlightenment. Extending to 28 folio volumes, each a thousand pages in length, and with the intention of recording all existing knowledge, both practical and intellectual, the Encyclopedie contained some 72,000 articles by 230 contributors and sold an astonishing 250,000 copies across Europe. For the first of five programmes, the historian Justin Champion introduces the undertaking, from the commissioning of contributors to the practicalities of printing, binding and distribution, and on to its reception both by ordinary readers and by the political and religious authorities. In Justin's introduction Denis Diderot, the son of a provincial cutler, is brought back to life as the extraordinary driving passion behind this breathtaking landmark both of publishing history and the Enlightenment project.

Justin Champion introduces French philosopher Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie project.

Considering it was published in the 1750s, the Encyclopedie, with its 28 folio volumes and 72,000 articles, puts the wonders of the internet firmly in the shade. Dr Kate Tunstall and Dr Caroline Warman, both of whom teach French at The University of Oxford, are passionate enthusiasts of the Encyclopedie. In this evening's programme, they broadcast from the Taylorian Institute in Oxford, pulling volume after immense folio volume from the open shelves to show how the complex system of 'renvois' or cross-references, makes the Encyclopedie both a mine of information about the Enlightenment and a browser's dream.

Kate Tunstall and Caroline Warman introduce the vast scope of Diderot's Encyclopedie.

How do we know what we know, or what we think we know? Why do people have different ideas about the world, and how can we judge them? What are the origins of the universe? Is there any proof of the existence of God? These are questions which still preoccupy us today, but Dr Kate Tunstall, who teaches French at the University of Oxford, is fascinated by how the great French thinker and activist, Denis Diderot, asked them in the age of the Enlightenment. In this evening's Essay, she introduces his early work, Letter on the Blind, which starts with the eighteenth century fascination with cataract operations and goes on to explore what answers blind people can give sighted people about the meaning of life.

Kate Tunstall introduces Diderot's Letter on the Blind.

The love letters of Denis Diderot to his mistress Sophie Volland are amongst the most passionate and touching of all Enlightenment writing. According to Dr Caroline Warman, an expert in the French Enlightenment at Jesus College, Oxford, 'they sizzle the pages they are written on'. In this evening's Essay, Caroline Warman explores Diderot's passionate interest in women, both from a personal point of view and as victims of injustice and intolerance. She introduces his erotic novella, Indiscreet Jewels, and his semi-pornographic novel, The Nun, while unpacking Diderot's serious and stimulating exploration of the abuse of power and the human appetite for pleasure.

Caroline Warman on Diderot's interest in women - personally and as victims of intolerance.

Denis Diderot's publications range from his monumental Encyclopedie to his erotic novella, Indiscreet Jewels, but perhaps his most extraordinary work is D'Alembert's Dream. It starts with Diderot's fellow encyclopedist, D'Alembert, challenging him to explain human life without making any reference to God or the soul or anything that isn't purely physical. Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall, both Diderot experts at the University of Oxford, take on the Dream in a dialogue of their own and playfully challenge the listener to grapple with this quintessentially Enlightenment subject themselves.

Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall introduce Diderot's dialogue D'Alembert's Dream.