of a host of fragmentary pieces, some of them mentioned above, and in luminous declamations with his friends. All accounts agree that Diderot was seen at his best in con versation. " He who only knows Diderot in his writings," says Marmontel, "does not know him at all. When he grew animated in talk, and allowed his thoughts to flow in all their abundance, then he became truly ravishing. In his writings he had not the art of ensemble ; the first operation which orders and places everything was too slow and too painful to him." Diderot himself was conscious of the want of literary merit in his pieces. In truth he set no high value on what he had done. It is doubtful whether he was ever alive to the waste that circumstance and temperament together made of an intelligence from which, if it had been free to work systematically, the world of thought had so much to hope. He was one of those simple, disinterested, and intellectually sterling workers to whom their own personality is as nothing in presence of the vast subjects that engage the thoughts of their lives. He wrote what he found to write, and left the piece, as Oarlyle has said, " on the waste of accident, with an ostrich-like indifference." When he heard one day that a collected edition of his works was in the press at Amsterdam, he greeted the news with " peals of laughter," so well did he know the. haste and the little heed with which those
works had been dashed off.Diderot died in the month of July 1T84, six years after Voltaire and Rousseau, one year after his old colleague D Alembert, and five years before D Holbach, his host and intimate for a lifetime. Notwithstanding Diderot s peals of laughter at the thought, there is now just completed nearly a hundred years since his death an elaborate and exhaustive collection of his writings in twenty stout volumes, edited by MM. Asse"zat and Tourneux.
DIDO, or Elisa, the reputed founder of Carthage, was the daughter of Mutgo, Belus, or Agenor, king of Tyre. She may have been an historical character, but the stories told of her by Justin and Virgil differ essentially. She was worshipped at Carthage, and as a deity may be identified with Juno Cœlestis, the Roman form of the Phœnician Astarte.
DIDOT, the name of a family of learned French printers and publishers.
François Didot (1689-1757), founder of the family, was born at Paris. He began business as a bookseller and printer in 1713, and among his undertakings was a collection of the travels of his friend the Abbe" Prevost, in 20 volumes (1747). It was remarkable for its typographical perfection, and was adorned with many engravings and maps.
François Ambroise Didot (1730-1 804), son of Francois, made important improvements in type-founding, and was the first to attempt printing on vellum paper. Among the works which he published was the famous collection of French classics prepared by order of Louis XVI. for the education of the Dauphin, and the folio edition of L Art de verifier les dates.
Pierre François Didot (1732-1795), brother of the preceding, devoted much attention to the art of type- founding and to paper-making. Among the works which issued from his press was an edition in folio of the Imitatio Christi (1788).
Henri Didot (1765-1852), son of Pierre Fran9ois, is celebrated for his " microscopic " editions of various standard works, for which he engraved the type when nearly seventy years of age. He was also the engraver of the assignats issued by the Constituent and Legislative assemblies and the Convention.
Didot Saint-Leger, second son of Pierre François, was the inventor of the paper-making machine known in England as the Didot machine.
Pierre Didot (1760-1853), eldest son of Francois Ambroise, is celebrated as the publisher of the beautiful " Louvre " editions of Virgil, Horace, and Racine. The Racine, in 3 volumes folio, was pronounced in 1801 to be " the most perfect typographical production of all ages."
Firmin Didot (1764-1836), second son of Francois Ambroise, sustained the reputation of the family both as printer and type-founder. He invented or revived the process of stereotyping, coined its name> and first made use of the process in his edition of Callet s Tables of Logarithms (1795), in which he secured an accuracy till then unattain able, He published stereotyped editions of French, English, and Italian classics at a very low price. He was the author of two tragedies La Heine de Portugal and La Jfort d Annibai; and he wrote metrical translations from Virgil, Tyrtaeus, and Theocritus.
Ambroise Firmin Didot (1790-1876), was the eldest son of the preceding. After receiving a classical education, he spent three years in Greece and in the East; and on the retirement of his father in 1827 he undertook, in con junction with his brother Hyacinthe, the direction of the publishing business. Their greatest undertaking was a new edition of the Thesaurus Grcecce Linguas of Henry Stephens, under the editorial care of the brothers Dindorf and M. Hase (9 vols. 1855-59). Among the numerous important works published by the brothers, the 200 volumes forming the Bibliotheoue des auteurs gre s, Biblio theque latine, and Bibliotheque franfdise deserce special mention. Ambroise Firrnin Didot was the first to propose (1823) a subscription in favour of the Greeks, then in insurrection against Turkish tyranny. Besides a translation of Thucydides (1833), he wrote the articles " Estienne " in the Nouvelle Biographic Generalc, and " Typographic " in the Ency. Mod., as well as Observa tions sur U orthographic francaise (1867), &c. In 1875 he published a very learned and elaborate monograph on Aldus Manutius. His collection of MSS., the richest in France, was said to be worth, at the time of his death, not less than 2,000,000 francs.
DIDRON, Adolphe Napoléon (1806-1867), French archaeologist, was born at Hautvillers, in the department of Marne, March 13, 1806. At first a student of law, he began in 1830, by the advice of Victor Hugo, to apply himself to the study of the Christian archaeology of the Middle Ages. After visiting and examining the principal churches, first of Normandy, then of Central and Southern France, he was on his return appointed by M. Guizot secretary to the Historical Committee of Arts and Monu ments (1835); and in the following years he delivered several courses of lectures on Christian iconography at the Bibliotheque Royale. In 1839 he visited Greece for the purpose of examining the art of the Eastern Church, both in its buildings and its manuscripts. In 1844 he originated the Annales Archeologiques, a periodical devoted to his favourite subject, which he edited until his death. In 1 845 he established at Paris a special archojological library, and at the same time a manufactory of painted glass. In the same year he was admitted to the Legion of Honour. His most important work is the Iconojraphie Chretienne, of which, however, the first portion only, Histoire de Dita (1843), was published. It was translated into English by E. J. Millington. Among his other works may be men- tiofted the Manuel filconographie Chretienne grecque (t latine (1845), the Icnnographie des ehapiteaux du palais ducal de Veiiise (1857), .and the Manuel des ob/ets de bronze et d orfevrerie (1859). He died November 13, 1867.
