Denis Diderot
1751
This book is a universal dictionary of arts and sciences. It contains the definitions of the terms in several arts, liberal and mechanical, and also several sciences. Encyclopedie is was a translation of "Cyclopaedia" into French. As Diderot translated the book, he came up with the idea that it should not be limited to just the arts and science but every branch of knowledge that should be learned by man. It was a project that was 20 years in the making before it was finally completed.
Read this work at the World Public Library (library card needed).