Editing Denis Diderot (section)

==Early life==
[[File:N° 9 de la place dans le centre ville de Langres.jpg|thumb|''N° 9 de la place dans le centre ville de Langres'': in the background on the right side is Diderot's birthplace]]
[[File:Langres - Denis Diderot.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Statue of Denis Diderot in the city of [[Langres]], his birthplace]]

Denis Diderot was born in [[Langres]], [[Province of Champagne|Champagne]]. His parents were [[Didier Diderot]], a [[Cutlery|cutler]], ''maître coutelier'', and Angélique Vigneron. Of Denis' five siblings, three survived to adulthood: Denise Diderot, their youngest brother Pierre-Didier Diderot and, their sister Angélique Diderot. Denis Diderot greatly admired his sister Denise, sometimes referring to her as "a female [[Socrates]]".<ref>Arthur M. Wilson. ''Diderot: The Testing Years, 1713–1759.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1957, p. 14 [https://archive.org/stream/diderotthetestin001232mbp/diderotthetestin001232mbp_djvu.txt]</ref>

Diderot began his formal education at a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] college in Langres. In 1732 he received the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Paris. He abandoned the idea of entering the clergy in 1735<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely|last=Curran|first=Andrew|publisher=Other Press|year=2019|isbn=978-159051-670-6|pages=319}}</ref> and, instead, decided to study at the [[Paris Law Faculty]]. His study of law was short-lived, however, and in the early 1740s he decided to become a writer and translator.<ref name=":0" /> Because of his refusal to enter one of the [[Profession|learned professions]], he was disowned by his father and, for the next ten years, he lived a [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] existence.<ref name="Arthur Wilson 1972">Arthur Wilson, ''Diderot'' (New York: Oxford, 1972).</ref>

In 1742 he formed a friendship with [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], whom he met while watching games of chess and drinking coffee at the [[Café de la Régence]].<ref name=":0" /> In October 1743, he further alienated his father by marrying [[Anne-Antoinette Diderot|Antoinette Champion]] (1710–1796), a devout Catholic.<ref name=":0" /> Diderot senior considered the match inappropriate, given Champion's low social standing, poor education, fatherless status, and lack of a dowry. She was about three years older than Diderot. She bore Diderot one surviving child, a girl,<ref>Andrew S. Curran, Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, Other Press, 2019, p. 143</ref> named Angélique, after both Diderot's dead mother and his sister. The death in 1749 of his sister Angélique, a nun, in her convent, may have affected Diderot's opinion of religion. She is assumed to have been the inspiration for his novel about a nun, ''[[La Religieuse (novel)|La Religieuse]]'', in which he depicts a woman who is forced to enter a convent, where she suffers at the hands of her fellow nuns.<ref name="Arthur Wilson 1972"/><ref name="Andrew S. Curran 2019, p. 275">Andrew S. Curran, Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, Other Press, 2019, p. 275</ref>

Diderot was unfaithful to his wife, and had affairs with Anne-Gabrielle Babuty (who would marry and later divorce the artist [[Jean-Baptiste Greuze]]), [[Madeleine de Puisieux]], [[Louise-Henriette Volland|Sophie Volland]], and [[Mme de Maux]] (Jeanne-Catherine de Maux), to whom he wrote numerous surviving letters and who eventually left him for a younger man.<ref name=AoV />{{rp|675–676}} Diderot's letters to Sophie Volland are known for their candor and are regarded to be "among the literary treasures of the eighteenth century".<ref name=AoV />{{rp|675}}