Découvertes Gallimard

*Découvertes Gallimard*
	; Images used on Découvertes Gallimard book covers.
Translator	Ruth Sharman, Paul G. Bahn, et al.
Illustrator	Dominique Thibault, Jean-Olivier Héron [fr], for pré-générique only (first 2 volumes), et al.
Cover artist	David Roberts, Roland Cat, et al.
Country	France
Language	French
Genre	Encyclopaedia, humanities
Publisher	FR: Éditions Gallimard; UK: Thames & Hudson; US: Harry N. Abrams
Published	1986–present
Published in English	UK & US: 1992–2008
Media type	Print (Paperback, hardcover) & Digital edition for iPad
No. of books	700⁺ (including spin-offs); 107 (UK edition); 111 (US edition)

Découvertes Gallimard (French: [dekuvɛʁt ɡalimaːʁ], lit. ''Gallimard Discoveries''; in United Kingdom: New Horizons, in United States: Abrams Discoveries) is an illustrated encyclopaedic collection of pocket-sized books created by the French publisher Éditions Gallimard, made in the style of livre d'art ('art book'). The first volume À la recherche de l'Égypte oubliée (English-language edition: The Search for Ancient Egypt^[3]) was published on 21 November 1986, which is written by the French Egyptologist Jean Vercoutter.^[4]

Overview

The birth of this collection was based on an idea by Pierre Marchand, then directed by Élisabeth de Farcy.^[5] There are 588 volumes plus more than 150 books of spin-offs in this collection, each book focuses on a particular topic, such as history and archaeology, culture and society, art and aesthetics, science and technology, a biography of a famous person, or memories of places, etc.^[6] The whole collection covers almost everything of human knowledge. The A6 paper size (125 × 178 mm) is used for these pocket books and printed on thick and glossy coated paper, with a lot of full colour illustrations extracted from heritage resources to decorate the informational texts. Each book has a “Documents” section, more detailed documentary information and historical records are provided here, as well as the sources of all illustrations for those who want to learn further.

The Découvertes collection has been translated into more than 20 languages and sold over 20 million copies worldwide as of 1999.^[7] The English edition of Découvertes Gallimard is published by Harry N. Abrams in United States under the title Abrams Discoveries series,^[8]^[9] and in United Kingdom it is published by Thames & Hudson called New Horizons series.^[10]