Summary:
"Essais d'un dictionnaire universel" by Antoine Furetière is a linguistic and encyclopedic work written in the late 17th century. The book serves as a preliminary attempt to compile a comprehensive dictionary that includes both modern and ancient French terms as well as vocabulary from various scientific and artistic disciplines. This initial text offers a glimpse into Furetière’s broader ambition of creating an extensive lexicon that can explain the language to its users and preserve its richness for future generations. The opening of the work consists of a foreword addressed to the reader, explaining the purpose of this electronic publication and noting its fidelity to the original text. Furetière outlines the overarching goal of his endeavor, which is to provide an encyclopedic dictionary that covers the arts and sciences missing from existing works, thereby serving not only scholars and scientists but also the general public. He mentions that this is just an "essay" or sample of the extensive work he intended to produce, setting the stage for an elaborate exploration of language and knowledge within the pages that follow. (This is an automatically generated summary.)