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Louis de Jaucourt | |
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| Born | 16 September 1704 Paris, France |
| Died | 3 February 1779 (aged 74) Compiègne, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, philosophe, writer |
| Known for | Encyclopédie |
Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt (French: [də ʒokuʁ]; 16 September 1704 – 3 February 1779) was a French scholar and the most prolific contributor to the Encyclopédie. He wrote about 17,000 articles on subjects including physiology, chemistry, botany, pathology, and political history, or about 25% of the entire encyclopaedia, all done voluntarily.[1] In the generations after the Encyclopédie's, mainly due to his aristocratic background, his legacy was largely overshadowed by the more bohemian Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, but by the mid-20th century more scholarly attention was being paid to him.