Between progress and decline : crises in early French dictionaries and encyclopaedias (1830-1840)

Abstract

If we envisage the 19th century in France, from the Encyclopédie méthodique (1782-1832) by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke to the Grande Encyclopédie (1885-1902) by Marcelin Berthelot, as the century of dictionaries and encyclopaedias, then the 1830s constitute a crucial moment. The decisive technological and commercial innovations of the 1800-1830 period enabled the blossoming of the book and printing industry and the real birth of modern press