Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot was born in 1713 at Langres in France, the son of a master cutler. Educated by the Jesuits, he moved to Paris, studied there, and lived for years by tutoring and translating. In 1749 his Letter on the Blind, which questioned the argument from design, led to his imprisonment for several months at Vincennes. From 1747 he directed, at first with the mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert, the Encyclopédie, a vast reference work on the sciences, arts and trades that spread the ideas of the Enlightenment and was repeatedly suppressed by the authorities. Its seventeen volumes of text were completed in 1765, with volumes of plates following until 1772. Diderot also wrote plays, art criticism, and fiction such as Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau's Nephew, much of which was published only after his death. In 1773 he travelled to St Petersburg at the invitation of Catherine the Great, who had bought his library. He died in Paris in 1784.

Denis Diderot is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Educated by Jesuits and tonsured, he did not enter the church; he moved from Roman Catholicism to deism and then to atheism. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica