(, ; in United Kingdom: New Horizons, in United States: Abrams Discoveries) is an editorial collection of illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in pocket format. The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, written by experts and intended for a general audience.
Created in the style of livre d'art, the collection is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper, as commented in L'Express, "genuine monographs, published like art books". Its creator—Pierre Marchand the "iconophile", as remarked by the German graphic designer Raymond Stoffel—was instrumental in moulding the policy and ideals of the collection, which was an immediate success both in France and internationally.
The first title (English edition: The Search for Ancient Egypt) appeared on 21 November 1986, authored by the French Egyptologist Jean Vercoutter. These scholarly little books then released in successive volumes, without a systematic plan, each of which is structured like a separate book (see monographic series). 588 titles were published by November 2012, with more than 160 volumes of spin-offs and catalogues as of 2021.
Overview
The books are printed using A6 format (125 × 178 mm), according to Encyclopædia Universalis, "with breathtaking iconography (illustration)" reproduced on thick and glossy coated paper, such as archaeology, art, culture, civilisation, history, music, religion, science, et cetera, with 502 specialists' contributions. for example, the title (UK ed. The Sky: Order and Chaos), which narrated in chronological order to present the varied subjects relating to the sky above and peoples' perception of it, through historical perspective of cultural, social and religious aspects.
The captions for illustrations must be informative, they should not duplicate information in the body text, nor do they interrupt the narrative thread. Researchers and academics must adhere to the constraints of a mainstream collection. Apart from obvious analytical abilities, authors are expected to write quality text and a sensitivity to illustration. A "Découvertes" is not a book of authorship, the author is only one of the many speakers. Bruno Blasselle, director of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, author of two volumes of ('History of Book', and ), and co-author of the title , explained his experience of working for the collection: "For an author, to write a Découvertes title is to be trapped, to put oneself in a situation of being obliged to go beyond his/her own formulation."
thumb|263px|International editions of the first title [[The Search for Ancient Egypt|À la recherche de l'Égypte oubliée. From left to right, first row: American, British, German and Taiwanese editions; second row: Hispanic American, Russian, Romanian and Japanese editions. Editions in the first row sharing identical cover artwork with Gallimard, whereas those in the second row being redesigned.]]
The cover design is one of the specificities. The old covers are glossy with black background illustrated in colour, the newer covers are matt-laminated rather than glossy,
The collection formerly consisted of eighteen series—, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and —which have been abandoned, it is now reorganised around seven major subjects with colour codes: (red), (brown), (blue), (white), (dark blue), (yellow) and (green).
History
thumb|left|Logo of Découvertes Gallimard, appearing on the back cover and book spine, including "" and some international editions.
Découvertes Gallimard was born in Gallimard Jeunesse, based on an idea by Pierre Marchand after the publications of two pocket collections: Découvertes Cadet in 1983 and Découvertes Benjamin in 1984. These three Découvertes collections cater to three levels: grades 4 to 6 (Découvertes Benjamin), grades 7 to 9 (Découvertes Cadet), and grades 10 and up (Découvertes Gallimard). This pocket encyclopaedia initially named ('The Paths of Knowledge'), Pierre Marchand already had the idea when he entered Gallimard in 1972, as he explained: "I have invested fourteen years of my professional life in this collection. Thanks to the success of 'choose your own adventure books' that we were able to embark on this adventure. [...] For the first time, genuine encyclopaedias in pocket format. [...] Our bet is that once you open the book, no matter what subject you read or which page you are on, you can no longer close it." Françoise Balibar, Jean-Pierre Maury, Jean-Pierre Verdet, Marc Meunier-Thouret and some others were the first to experience this pharaonic project that would await the arrival of Élisabeth de Farcy and Paule du Bouchet, in 1981, for truly to take shape. To producing genuine encyclopaedias in pocket format and fully illustrated in colour, in that time, many judged such an editorial project insane. The authors were sceptical about this project at first, even contemptuous, but they have eventually been fascinated by the collection. Some have even authored several books, such as Françoise Cachin, curator of the Musée d'Orsay, author of three books – (), (), (); the physicist Jean-Pierre Maury, who wrote four titles – (), (), () and (); or the historian of religion , who published seven books in the collection. "We've never seen so many things between the first and last pages of a book" is the slogan proposed by Pascal Manry's advertising agency CLM BBDO for the launch of the collection. Without market research at the start, Pierre Marchand, a self-taught man, explained on the television programme ': "This project was as old as my thirst for knowledge. No doubt it is necessary to be precisely self-taught to sense the importance of an encyclopaedia. We must have been forced to build our own culture, to seek reliable references, to make clear statements. To conceive 'Découvertes', I didn't need market research, surveys or tests. Right from the start, I wanted to give the public the books I needed." Although "Découvertes" was reserved for youth at the beginning, it was eventually launched for the general adult public.) by , a Belgian Dutch-language writer. Nevertheless, the Parisian publishing house hesitated, "interesting subject, but how can you illustrate that?" Then De Donder showed a list of about one thousand images that he gathered over years, Gallimard was convinced and made him the first non-French-language author published in the collection.
In the heyday of "Découvertes" at the turn of the 1990s, authors were mainly recruited from academics and curators. Numerous artist monographs were often published on the occasions of major exhibitions, with a predilection for painters and musicians. Such as the title was released for the exhibition "Henri Matisse 1904–1917" at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1993; Or reactivity in relation to current events, for instance, the title Sang pour sang, le réveil des vampires was published on 5 January 1993 for the release of Francis Coppola's Dracula in France; and () for the release of the French film Germinal; () for the bicentennial of the CNAM; () was on sale on the occasion of "Yves Saint Laurent retrospective" at the Petit Palais in 2010. Some works were launched within an extremely limited time frame, such as (), for the inauguration of the Louvre Pyramid in 1989; and () for the Opéra Bastille in 1990, both completed in six to eight weeks instead of the usual two or three months. Alongside many works dictated by current events, there are also a number of "strange curiosities", such as a book devoted to red hair ( – ), which is unusual in this type of collection. (currently more than 20 languages, see "International editions"). "This inexpensive pocket encyclopaedia embodies its humanistic dream: to make the most advanced state of knowledge available to everyone. Diderot and D'Alembert would not have denied it...", commented by Hedwige Pasquet, current directress of Gallimard Jeunesse.
In order to remedy the problems of international proprietaries and reproduction rights of works of art, co-publishers firstly define a number of titles, then they choose according to their own editorial line, and share the high cost of worldwide photographic rights. Therefore, Harry N. Abrams in the United States chose more titles on traditional cultural subjects, such as À la recherche de la Rome antique () or La Naissance de la Grèce (); while in Japan, the publisher prefers original titles, such as the title ('Witches: Fiancées of Satan'), and the title ('The Hour of the Great Passage: Chronicle of Death'). The Madrilenian publisher Aguilar was the first one among "Découvertes"' international co-publishers since 1989, the first 12 titles for the Spanish collection were released in the same year. In Italy, the publisher Electa/Gallimard produced 128 titles within seven years; in Japan, the title for their series ('Rediscovery of Knowledge') has been published in early 2017. In addition, foreign editions are usually co-printed to amortise fees and support countries with small circulation.
Image
Image (illustration, designated as in French) is the essential part to Découvertes Gallimard, the collection draws much inspiration from magazine layout designs. Full colour pictures, documentary illustrations, archival photographs, historical maps occupy a central place in this work, as said Pierre Marchand himself: "the language of images is a universal language". But in the 1980s, desktop publishing and photo digitisation did not exist, the sophisticated mockups were entirely handmade and the iconographers ran around museums, libraries, painting galleries and other agencies to look for documents. Today, the technology has simplified all these procedures but the difficulty lies elsewhere, the status of the image is increasingly complex. In this collection, all books share the same concept as to layout and looks, each book itself could become a work of art rather than only its substitute. It is coupled with up-to-date editing equipment, organisational innovations and a constant pursuit of higher printing quality at lower cost. A more friendship than business relationship between Marchand and the Italian printer Gianni Stavro has advanced the state of the art in printing. The suppliers of "Découvertes" are supposed to cooperate between themselves, "for instance, the French printer had a problem concerning the pigments, so the Italian printer invited him over to explain how he could solve the problem", explained by a Gallimard employee.
Spin-offs
- : Literally 'Another History of the Century'. A closed series within Découvertes Gallimard collection released in 1999, consisting of ten volumes for ten decades, authored by French historian and based on the Gaumont cinematographic archives.
- : A sub-collection consists of 13 volumes, 12 volumes released in 1992 and one in 1994, a larger format (210 × 270 mm) is used for them.
- : A 6-volume sub-collection released in 1998 (124 × 178 mm), inspired by the "Documents" section at the back of every Découvertes book. which launched its first titles in 1992 with the slogan, "the expanding universe between two covers". According to Thames & Hudson director Jamie Camplin, the remit is to "educate in an entertaining way".
Paul Gottlieb, former director and editor in chief of the New York-based publisher Abrams Books (then called Harry N. Abrams), discovered Pierre Marchand's "Découvertes" at the Gallimard stand during the Bologna Book Fair in 1991, which he called "a dazzling array of books" and an "imaginative combination of text and pictures in a magnificently produced series of paperback books". He began to negotiate for English language translation. The collection was eventually titled Abrams Discoveries series by the U.S. publisher. They began to publish in the spring of 1992, and more than 100 titles were produced by 2008.
The two publishers shared the translation costs, the American edition was then re-edited to take into account English spelling, or vice versa. In his review for Die Zeit, the German literary scholar and historian wrote that the collection is an "adventure stands for surprise, excitement and amusement. Boredom is already prevented by the curiosity of vivid illustrations which are accompanied by detailed explanations". Rick Poynor wrote in Eye magazine that the collection "is one of the great projects of contemporary popular publishing". Raleigh Trevelyan's article in The New York Times mentioned D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy from "Abrams Discoveries" series, said "all volumes in the 'Discoveries' series are ingeniously designed". Art critic John Russell considered these books contain unique information, such as Aelian's authority on the musicality of the elephant or the precise look of Halley's Comet as it was depicted in 1835. Eduardo Gudiño Kieffer of La Nación also gave the collection a positive review, writing, "The books are excellent assistants for intellectuals, writers, journalists and students of different aspects of the culture, [...] they contain accurate and pithy information. [...] They obtain a cognitive 'duration' difficult to achieve in the mediatic fugacity." The Spanish newspaper El País: "Those books combine an important 'Documents' section with an original thematic concept. It's obviously a work of education and popularisation, but popularisation of very good level." The Brazilian newspapers – Folha de S.Paulo: "What is most striking in the collection, however, is not the eclecticism or the unusual themes—usually developed by French experts—but the format and the iconographic content thereof."; ': "almost like a luxury comic magazine and of exquisite taste".
According to the French magazine L'Expansion, some other positive reviews including The Times: "A brand-new and daring collection"; Die Zeit: "As soon as you open these handy books, you can not get away from them anymore"; The New York Times Book Review: "A collection that recalls nineteenth-century encyclopaedias, where intelligence went hand in hand with curiosity". The French news magazine L'Express: "Genuine monographs, published like art books, offered in pocket format and sold at an affordable price. [...] 'Découvertes' changed the face of encyclopaedism and art book, adapting the book to the era of 'zapping'." It is also included by ', a French weekly magazine, as one of six collections that marked the history of French publishing.
Despite all the favours to its quality and attractive visual design, the collection suffers from a problem of identity in bookshops: where to put these books? With books for youth or books for adults? As pocket books or human science reference books? And opt for a thematic scattering on the shelves. Many booksellers renounce the displays that were exclusively reserved for "Découvertes" due to high competition. All the more so because a rather tight inventory management at Gallimard, the complete titles are never available at the same time, which is not appreciated by the customers. The problem of identification is also latent in print media, the journalists, even if they are personally delighted to receive the new titles from a press agent, would not be too enthusiastic about presenting a simple pocket book in their articles, even if it's a brand new title and not a reprint. These 52-minute films are produced as part of The Human Adventure, a documentary television programme of Arte. Nine of them were directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky.
List of documentary films:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center" width="95%"
! Documentary
! Literal translation
! Director
! Voice-over
! Release year
! Adaptation of
! UK edition
! US edition
! Author
|-----
|
| 'Once Upon a Time in Mesopotamia'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| François Marthouret, , Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| 1998
| (nº 191)
|
|
| Jean Bottéro, Marie-Joseph Stève
|-----
|
| 'When Japan Opened to the World'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| François Marthouret, Michel Duchaussoy
| 1998
| (nº 99)
|
|
| Francis Macouin, Keiko Omoto
|-----
|
| 'Galileo, the Messenger of the Stars'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| François Marthouret, Ruggero De Pas
| 1998
| (nº 10)
|
|
| Jean-Pierre Maury
|-----
|
| 'On the Road to Timbuktu: Explorers in Africa'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| François Marthouret, , Richard Sammel
| 1999
| (nº 216)
|
|
| Anne Hugon
|-----
|
| 'The Lost Cities of the Mayans'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| François Marthouret, Marc Zammit
| 2000
| (nº 20)
| Lost Cities of the Maya
| Lost Cities of the Maya
| Claude-François Baudez, Sydney Picasso
|-----
|
| 'Leonardo da Vinci'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| Aurore Clément,
| 2001
| (nº 293)
| Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Man
| Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance
| Alessandro Vezzosi
|-----
|
| 'The Empire of Numbers'
| Philippe Truffault
| Denis Guedj
| 2001
| (nº 300)
| Numbers: The Universal Language
| Numbers: The Universal Language
| Denis Guedj
|-----
|
| 'The Land of the Redskins'
| Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
| Serge Avédikian, François Marthouret
| 2002
| (nº 14)
|
|
| Philippe Jacquin
|-----
|
| 'The Mystery of the Sources of the Nile'
| Stéphane Bégoin
| , Jacques-Henri Fabre, Vincent Grass, José Luccioni, Serge Marquant
| 2003
| (nº 117)
| The Exploration of Africa: From Cairo to the Cape
| The Exploration of Africa: From Cairo to the Cape
| Anne Hugon
|}
International editions
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center"
! Title
! Literal translation
! Language
! Country
! Publisher
! First published
|-----
|
| 'Gallimard Discoveries'
| French of France
| France
| Éditions Gallimard
| 1986
|-----
| New Horizons
|
| British English
| United Kingdom
| Thames & Hudson
| 1992
|-----
| Abrams Discoveries
|
| American English
| United States
| Harry N. Abrams
| 1992
|-----
|
| 'Electa/Gallimard Universal'
| Italian
| Italy
| Electa/Gallimard
| 1992
|-----
|
| 'L'ippocampo Universal'
| Italian
| Italy
| L'ippocampo Edizioni
| 2011
|-----
|
| 'Aguilar Universal'
| Peninsular Spanish
| Spain
|
| 1989
|-----
|
| 'Illustrated Library'
| Peninsular Spanish
| Spain
| Blume
| 2011
|-----
|
| 'Pocket Library KEYS'
| Spanish
| Spain, Hispanic America
| Ediciones B
| 1997
|-----
|
| 'Civilisation/Readers' Circle'
| European Portuguese
| Portugal
| Civilização Editora,
| 1991
|-----
|
| 'Discover'
| European Portuguese
| Portugal
|
| 2003
|-----
|
| 'Discoveries'
| Brazilian Portuguese
| Brazil
|
| 2000
|-----
|
| 'A World of Knowledge'
| Swedish
| Sweden
|
| 1991
|-----
|
| 'Horizon Books'
| Norwegian
| Norway
| Schibsted
| 1990
|-----
|
| 'New Knowledge on New and Old'
| Danish
| Denmark
| Roth
| 1993
|-----
|
| 'Adventure Story'
| German
| Germany
| Ravensburger Buchverlag
| 1990
|-----
|
| 'Fibula's Pharos
| Dutch
| Netherlands
| Fibula-Van Dishoek
| 1990
|-----
|
| 'Standaard Discoveries'
| Dutch
| Belgium, Netherlands
| Standaard Uitgeverij
| 1990
|-----
|
| 'Landscapes of Civilisation'
| Polish
| Poland
| Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
| 1994
|-----
|
| 'Know and Understand the World – Focus'
| Polish
| Poland
|
| 2002
|-----
|
| 'Horizons'
| Czech
| Czech Republic
|
| 1994
|-----
|
| 'Horizons'
| Slovak
| Slovakia
|
| 1994
|-----
|
| 'Chalk Books'
| Hungarian
| Hungary
|
| 1991
|-----
|
| 'Milestones'
| Slovene
| Slovenia
|
| 1994
|-----
|
| 'Baltos lankos Discoveries'
| Lithuanian
| Lithuania
| Baltos lankos
| 1997
|-----
|
| 'Univers Discoveries: Cotidianul. Encyclopaedic Collections'
| Romanian
| Romania
|
| 2007
|-----
|
| 'General Culture Series'
| Turkish
| Turkey
| Yapı Kredi Yayınları
| 2001
|-----
|
| 'Delithanasi Discoveries'
| Greek
| Greece
| ()
| 1990
|-----
|
| 'Discovery'
| Russian
| Russia
| AST
| 2001
|-----
|
| 'Biography of the Arts'
| Russian
| Russia
|
| 2019
|-----
|
| 'Gallimard Discoveries'
| Lebanese Arabic
| Lebanon
| (; lit. 'Free House')
| 2011
|-----
|
| 'Rediscovery of Knowledge'
| Japanese
| Japan
|
| 1990
|-----
| <br />()
| 'Voyage of Discoveries'
| Traditional Chinese
| Taiwan
|
| 1994
|-----
| <br />()
| 'Voyage of Discoveries'
| Simplified Chinese
| China
| Published by various publishers
| 1998
|-----
| <br />(Sigong Discovery)
| 'Sigong Discovery series'
| Korean
| South Korea
| Sigongsa
| 1995
|}
See also
- For Dummies, a similar American series of introductory reference books.
- Mysteries of the Unknown, an American occult series by Time Life.
- Que sais-je?, a similar series of introductory books published by the Presses Universitaires de France.
- Rough Guides, a similar British series of introductory tourism books.
- Very Short Introductions, a similar series of introductory books published by the Oxford University Press.
- World of Art, an illustrated art encyclopaedia series published by Thames & Hudson.
Notes
References
Sources
- In the beginning was the picture: NEW HORIZONS by Jim Davies at Eye
- Revelations in style: Gallimard's Découvertes series secures readers' loyalty by showing respect for their curiosity and intelligence by Rick Poynor at Eye
- Découvertes Gallimard ou la culture encyclopédique à la française by Françoise Hache-Bissette, senior lecturer at the Paris Descartes University. This article is published in the conference proceedings at Sorbonne in December 2001 ( of ).
External links
- Découvertes Gallimard Arts series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Archéologie series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Histoire series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Littératures series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Religions series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Culture et société series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Sciences et techniques series at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Texto at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Albums at Éditions Gallimard
- Une autre histoire du XX siècle at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Hors série at Éditions Gallimard
- Découvertes Gallimard Carnet d'expo at Éditions Gallimard
- List of books in 'New Horizons' series at Publishing History