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‪By launching the ‪ ‪Encyclopédie‪‪ in 1750-51 and then defending it against its enemies, Diderot and D’Alembert laid down the principles of a survey of knowledge, defined a particular historical conjuncture and proposed an ambitious project for their time. This project, consisting not only in rendering the knowledge of the period more accessible but also in making the widest possible circulation of knowledge a fundamental right, can to some extent be identified with the Enlightenment. In many respects these two men were, each in his own way, overtaken by the movement they helped to bring forth.‪