There’s writing, and then there’s writing.

The focus in the 18th-century Diderot and d’Alembert “Encyclopedia” — the world’s first such compendium— was on the technical aspects of putting words on pages with quill pens in the most attractive way possible. It was not about how to generate especially meaningful content in engaging ways.

Nonetheless, are these not beautiful engravings? I dearly wish that my posture at my writing table matched what is shown here. But then, I’m much happier using a computer than a quill pen.