Encyclopedia

(Gr. en , in, kyklos , a circle, and paideia , instruction), a systematic view of the whole extent of human knowledge or of particular departments of it, with the subjects arranged generally in alphabetic order. Varro and Pliny the elder, among the Romans, attempted works of an encyclopedic nature, the latter in his well-known Hist or i a Natural is , or Natural History . Other ancient encyclopedic works were those of Stobæus and Suidas, and especially of Marc i an us Capella. In the thirteenth century a work on a regular plan was compiled by the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais (died 1264), in which was exhibited the whole sum of the knowledge of the Middle Ages. His work was entitled Speculum Hist or i ale, Naturale, Doctrinale , to which an anonymous author added, some years later, a Speculum Morale . Roger Bacon's Opus Majus also belonged to the encyclopedic cla . An exceedingly popular work was the De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bar tho lome us de Glanvilla, an English Francis can friar, which maintained its reputation from 1360 to the middle of the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century various encyclopedic works were compiled, such as the Latin one of Johann He in rich Alsted (in 7 vols., Herborn, 1620). In 1674 appeared the first edition of Moreri's Le Grand Dictionnaire Hist or i que ; in 1677 Johann Jacob Hoffmann published at Basel his Lexicon Uni ver sale ; and in 1697 appeared Bayle's famous Dictionnaire Hist or i que et Critique , which is still of great value. The first English alphabetical encyclopædia was the Lexicon Technicum , published in 1704. Among the chief English works of this kind are: 1. Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopædia, or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences , published in 1728 in 2 vols. folio. 2. The Encyclopædia Britannica , published in Edinburgh, in nine editions—the first in 1788, the ninth in 1875-88 (24 vols. 4to, with supplement, 11 vols., 1902-3). The tenth edition was published in 1902, and the eleventh i ued in 1910-11 by the University Pre , Cambridge. 3. Rees' Cyclopædia , 39 vols. 4to, illustrated, 1802-20. 4. Edinburgh Encyclopædia , 1810-30, 18 vols. 4to, conducted by Sir David (then Dr.) Brewster. 5. Encyclopædia Metropolitan a , London, 29 vols. 4to, and containing some valuable complete treatises. 6. The London Encyclopædia , by Thomas Curtis, 22 vols. 4to; London, 1829. 7. The Penny Cyclopædia , in 28 vols. small folio, 1833-43; since recast under the name of the English Cyclopædia . 8. Chambers's Encyclopædia , in 10 vols. 9. The Popular Encyclopædia , i ued in 14 vols. 10. Harms worth's Universal Encyclopedia . 11. Nelson's The New Age Encyclopædia . 12. The New Gresham Encyclopedia , 12 vols. (one being index). The chief American encyclopædias are the Encyclopædia American a , in 13 vols.; the New American Cyclopædia , in 16 vols.; Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia , 8 vols.; The New International Encyclopædia , 25 vols. Of the French cyclopædias the most famous is the great Dictionnaire Encyclopédique , by Diderot and D'Alembert (see next article); the Encyclopédie Méthodique, ou par Ordre des Matières , Paris, 1781-1832, in 201 vols. 4to, of which 47 are plates; the Encyclopédie Moderne , 1824-32, 26 vols.; the Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde , 1835-44, 22 vols.; the Dictionnaire de la Conversation et de la Lecture , 1851-58; the excellent Grande Encyclopédie , 31 vols.; and the large and valuable Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIX e Siècle , published by Larou e, 16 vols. folio (with supplementary vols.); The Nouveau Larou e Illustré , 7 vols. Numerous works of this kind have been published in Germany, the most popular being the Conversations-Lexikon of Brockhaus; Meyer's Kon vers a tions-Lexicon ; Pierer's Kon vers a tions-Lexikon ; and that i ued by Spamer. The most comprehensive is the All gem eine Encyklopädie , originally edited by 235 Profe ors Ersch and Gruber, begun in 1818, and not yet completed. The Rou kiy Entsiklopeditsheskiy Slovarj , the best Ru ian encyclopedia, in 43 vols, was published between 1905 and 1908.