The first volume, covering the letter A, appeared in June 1751 with its full title: Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, Arts et Métiers, with a ‘Preliminary Discourse’ by Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, in which he explained that the work would serve as both encyclopaedia and dictionary, giving an ‘eagle’s-eye’ view of knowledge that would show ‘the secret routes’ that connected different branches.
