The year 1759 saw the arrival in Paris of the abbe Galiani as secretary to the Neapolitan Embassy. His initial feelings of disappointment diminished as he was welcomed in the most important salons of Paris, where he met the principal Encyclopedistes, including Diderot. / This thesis is a thorough study of the intellectual and human association between Diderot and Galiani: the circumstances of their encounters, especially between 1760 and 1769 when Galiani was forced to return to Naples; their mutual friends, and the areas of common interest which attracted these two encyclopaedic minds, such as literature, especially the theatre, the arts and Antiquity, science, economics, politics and philosophy. / Along with a systematic analysis of these fields of mutual interest, the aspects of Galiani's personality which attracted Diderot to him have been studied. Particular emphasis is placed on what Diderot learned from Galiani, especially in economics and politics, and the role Galiani played in the crystallization of Diderot's thought. This is all the more significant in that the Diderot-Galiani friendship was consolidated at a critical point in the development of the philosopher's thought.

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