Gilliers, Joseph

Gilliers, Joseph (d. 1758) is best remembered as the author of Le cannameliste français, which was the most extensive manual for working with sugar written in the ancien régime. Published in 1751, the very year in which Diderot and d’Alembert brought forth the first volume of their famous Encyclopédie, the Cannaméliste français similarly features an alphabetized, dictionary-style format, reflective of the Enlightenment. Gilliers invented the word “cannameliste” from “canne” (sugar) to imply a person who works with sugar, so his book’s title might be translated as “The French Sugar-Worker.”