Brockhaus Konversations-Lexicon, 1902

An encyclopedia (or encyclopædia) is a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language Encyclopedia published by Brockhaus. A compendium is a concise yet comprehensive compilation of a body of Knowledge. Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Encyclopedias are divided into articles with one article on each subject covered. In an Encyclopedia an Encyclopedia article is a unit of writing on a particular Topic. The articles on subjects in an encyclopedia are usually accessed alphabetically by article name and can be contained in one volume or many volumes, depending on the amount of material included. ^[1]

General

Etymology, Spelling

The word 'encyclopedia' comes from the Classical Greek "ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία" (pronounced "enkyklios paideia"), literally, a "[well-]rounded education", meaning "general knowledge". Denis Diderot ( October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French Philosopher and writer The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Though the notion of a compendium of knowledge dates back thousands of years, the term was first used in the title of a book in 1541 by Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius, Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia (Basel, 1541). Joachim Sterck van Ringelbergh ( Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius) ( Antwerp, c The word encyclopaedia was first used as a noun in the title of his book by the Croatian encyclopedist Pavao Skalić in his Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon (Encyclopaedia, or Knowledge of the World of Disciplines, Basel, 1559). An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge Stanislav Pavao Skalić (1534-1573 also known as Paul Skalich or Paulus Scalichius de Lika, was an Encyclopedist, Renaissance humanist One of the oldest vernacular uses was by François Rabelais in his Pantagruel in 1532. ^[3][4]

Several encyclopedias have names that include the suffix -p(a)edia, e. g. , Banglapedia (on matters relevant for Bengal).

In British usage, the spellings encyclopedia and encyclopaedia are both current;^[5] in American usage, only the former is commonly used. ^[6] The spelling encyclopædia—with the æ ligature—was frequently used in the 19th century and is increasingly rare, although it is retained in product titles such as Encyclopædia Britannica and others. Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) records encyclopædia and encyclopedia as equal alternatives (in that order), and notes the æ would be obsolete except that it is preserved in works that have Latin titles. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1997–2002) features encyclopedia as the main headword and encyclopaedia as a minor variant. Webster's Dictionary is the name given to a common type of English language dictionary in the United States. In addition, cyclopedia and cyclopaedia are now rarely-used shortened forms of the word originating in the 17th century.

See also: American and British English spelling differences#Simplification of ae (æ) and oe (œ)

Characteristics

The encyclopedia as we recognize it today was developed from the dictionary in the 18th century. American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically A dictionary primarily focuses on words and their definitions, and typically provides limited information, analysis, or background for the word defined. A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic A definition is a statement of the meaning of a Word or Phrase. Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader still lacking in understanding the meaning or significance of a term, and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge. Understanding (also called intellection) is a psychological Process related to an abstract or physical object such as Person, situation or

To address those needs, an encyclopedia treats each subject in more depth and conveys the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject or discipline, given the overall length of the particular work. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level An encyclopedia also often includes many maps and illustrations, as well as bibliography and statistics. A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, Regions, and Themes An illustration is a visualization such as a Drawing, Painting, Photograph or other work of Art that stresses subject more than Bibliography (from Greek grc βιβλιογραφία bibliographia, literally "book writing" as a practice is the academic study of Books Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection analysis interpretation or explanation and presentation of Data. Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been researched and written by well-educated, well-informed content experts.

Four major elements define an encyclopedia: its subject matter, its scope, its method of organization, and its method of production.

• Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field (the English-language Encyclopædia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples). The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language Encyclopedia published by Brockhaus. General encyclopedias often contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers. A gazetteer is a geographical Dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names (see Toponomy) used in conjunction There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics but from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia or Encyclopaedia Judaica. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia ( Большая Советская Энциклопедия, or БСЭ; transliterated Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya The Encyclopaedia Judaica is a 26-volume English-language Encyclopedia of the Jewish people and their faith Judaism.
• Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopedia of medicine, philosophy, or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the target audience. In Marketing and Advertising, a target audience, or target group is the primary group of people that something usually an Advertising campaign, is aimed (For example, the Medical Encyclopedia produced by A. D. A. M. , Inc. for the U. S. National Institutes of Health. "NIH" redirects here For other meanings of NIH see NIH (disambiguation. )

Persian encyclopedias

• Some systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopedia usable as a work of reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of a number of separate articles, organised in alphabetical order), or organization by hierarchical categories. @@@ main@@@ - title Hierarchy@@@ keywords structure; sociology; information@@@ review@@@ - The former method is today the most common by far, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer previously unimaginable capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from Horace on the title page of the 18th century Encyclopédie suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ( Venosa, December 8, 65 BC - Rome, November 27, 8 BC known in the English-speaking world as Horace "
• As modern multimedia and the information age have evolved, they have had an ever-increasing effect on the collection, verification, summation, and presentation of information of all kinds. Projects such as Everything2, Encarta, h2g2 and Wikipedia are examples of new forms of the encyclopedia as information retrieval becomes simpler. Everything2, Everything2, or E2 for short is a collaborative Web -based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written Encarta is a Digital Multimedia Encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. h2g2 is a collaborative online encyclopedia project engaged in the construction of in its own words "an unconventional guide to life the universe and everything" ***************************************************************************************** * *

Some works titled "dictionaries" are actually similar to encyclopedias, especially those concerned with a particular field (such as the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, and Black's Law Dictionary). The Dictionary of the Middle Ages is a 13-volume Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships ( DANFS for short is the primary reference work for the basic facts about every Ship ever used Black's Law Dictionary is the most widely-used Law dictionary for the Law of the United States. The Macquarie Dictionary, Australia's national dictionary, became an encyclopedic dictionary after its first edition in recognition of the use of proper nouns in common communication, and the words derived from such proper nouns. The Macquarie Dictionary is a Dictionary of Australian English. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. An encyclopedic dictionary typically includes a large number of short listings arranged alphabetically and discussing a wide range of topics

History

Pliny the Elder

Naturalis Historia, 1669 edition, title page.

One of the first encyclopedic works to have survived to modern times is the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the first century AD. Naturalis Historia ( Latin for "Natural History" is an Encyclopedia written Circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, art and architecture, medicine, geography, geology and all aspects of the world about him. He stated in the preface that he had compiled 20,000 facts from 2000 different works by 100 authors, and added many others from his own experience. The work was published in 77 AD, although he probably never finished proofing the work before his untimely death in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Mount Vesuvius (in Italian Monte Vesuvio and in Latin Mons Vesuvius) is an active Stratovolcano east of Naples

The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an compendium of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature, or draw their materials from nature. He admits that

My subject is a barren one - the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one of us who has made the same venture, nor yet one Greek who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.

And he admits the problems of writing such a work:

It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is old, authority to what is new, brilliance to the common-place, light to the obscure, attraction to the stale, credibility to the doubtful, but nature to all things and all her properties to nature.

Although there were earlier works of a similar nature, by Marcus Terentius Varro for example, his was the only one to survive the Dark ages. Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC &ndash 27 BC also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s" as a characterization of the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe It became very popular in the Roman world, and survived, with many copies being made and distributed in the western world. It was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed in 1469, and has remained popular ever since as a source of information on the Roman world, and especially Roman art, Roman technology and Roman engineering. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Roman art includes the visual arts produced in Ancient Rome, and in the territories of the Roman empire. Roman technology is the engineering practice which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years Origins The Romans are generally famous for their advanced Engineering accomplishments although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas concepts It is also a recognised source for medicine, Roman art, mineralogy, zoology, botany, geology and many other topics not discussed by other classical authors. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Roman art includes the visual arts produced in Ancient Rome, and in the territories of the Roman empire. Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the Chemistry, Crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of Minerals Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of Botany, plant science(s, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of Biology and is the scientific study of plant Life Geology (from Greek γη gê, "earth" and λόγος Logos, "speech" lit Among many interesting entries are those for the elephant and the murex snail, the much sought-after source of Tyrian purple dye. Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. Murex is a Genus of medium to large sized Predatory tropical sea Snails These are carnivorous marine Gastropod

Although his work has been criticized for the lack of candour in checking the "facts", some of his text has been confirmed by recent research, like the spectacular remains of Roman gold mines in Spain, especially at Las Medulas, which Pliny probably saw in operation while a Procurator there a few years before he compiled the encyclopedia. "Gold mine" redirects here See Goldmine for other uses of the term Las Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in León province, Spain, used to be the most important Gold mine in the Roman Although many of the mining methods are now redundant, such as hushing and fire-setting, it is Pliny who recorded them for posterity, so helping us understand their importance in a modern context. Mining is the extraction of valuable Minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually (but not always from an Ore body Hushing is an ancient Mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins A method of mining fires were set against a rock face to break the rock by Thermal shock after dousing with water Pliny makes clear in the preface to the work that he had checked his facts by reading and comparing the works of others, as well as referring to them by name. Many such books are now lost works and are remembered by his references, much like the lost sources mentioned in the work of Vitruvius a century earlier. A lost work is a document or literary work produced some time in the past of which no surviving copies are known to exist Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum

Middle ages

First printed edition of 1472 (by Guntherus Zainer, Augsburg), title page of book 14 (de terra et partibus), illustrated with a T and O map. Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. A T and O map or O-T or T-O map ( orbis terrae, orb or circle of the earth is a type of Medieval World map, sometimes also called

Saint Isidore of Seville, one of the greatest scholars of the early Middle Ages, is widely recognized as being the author of the first known encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages, the Etymologiae (around 630), in which he compiled all learning available at his time, both ancient and modern, forming a huge piece of knowledge of 448 chapters in 20 volumes, which is very valuable not only for its significance, but also because of the quotes and fragments of texts by other authors that would have been lost had not it been done by Saint Isidore. Saint Isidore of Seville ( Spanish: es ''San Isidro'' or es ''San Isidoro de Sevilla'' Latin: latin ''Isidorus Hispalensis'' (c Etymologiae (or Origines, standard abbrev Orig) is an Encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (died

Bartholomeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum (1240) was the most widely read and quoted encyclopedia in the High Middle Ages^[7] while Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum Majus (1260) was the most ambitious encyclopedia in the late-medieval period at over 3 million words. Bartholomeus Anglicus ( Bartholomew of England) (born before 1203 - died 1272 was an early 13th century scholastic scholar of Paris a member of the Franciscan order The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 The Dominican friar Vincent of Beauvais ( Vincentius Bellovacensis) (c ^[7]

Islam

The early Muslim compilations of knowledge in the Middle Ages included many comprehensive works, and much development of what we now call scientific method, historical method, and citation. The Historiography of early Islam refers to the study of the early origins of Islam based on a critical analysis evaluation and examination of authentic Primary Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which Historians use Primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history A citation is a reference to a source (not always the original source published or unpublished(citation needed About year 960, the Brethren of Purity of Basra^[8] were engaged in their Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The Brethren of Purity ( Arabic اخوان الصفا Ikhwan al-Safa; also translated as Brethren of Sincerity) were a mysterious Basra ( BGN: AlBasrah also called Basorah Abillah and Uruk or IRAQ The name that British colony has adopted for Basra The Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (also variously known as the Epistles of the Brethren of Sincerity, the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity or Epistles Notable works include Abu Bakr al-Razi's encyclopedia of science, the Mutazilite Al-Kindi's prolific output of 270 books, and Ibn Sina's medical encyclopedia, which was a standard reference work for centuries. Muʿtazilah ( Arabic المعتزلة al-mu`tazilah) is a theological school of thought within Sunni Islam. ( أبو يوسف يعقوب إبن إسحاق الكندي) (c TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Also notable are works of universal history (or sociology) from Asharites, al-Tabri, al-Masudi, Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings, Ibn Rustah, al-Athir, and Ibn Khaldun, whose Muqadimmah contains cautions regarding trust in written records that remain wholly applicable today. The Ash'ari theology ( Arabic الأشاعرة al-asha`irah) is a school of early Muslim speculative theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923 أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير الطبري was one of the earliest most prominent and famous Persian Historians TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn íbn Ali al-Mas'udi (transl) (born c Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923 أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير الطبري was one of the earliest most prominent and famous Persian Historians The History of the Prophets and Kings (Persian تاریخ طبری, Arabic تاريخ الرسل والملوك Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, popularly known Tarikh al-Tabari Ibn Rustah (in Persian احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی - Aḥmad ebn Roste Eṣfahānī was a 10th century Persian explorer and geographer born in Rosta Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون,, ( May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH &ndash March 19 The Muqaddimah, or the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun ( Arabic: ar مقدّمة ابن خلدون Amazigh: Tazwarit n Ibn Xldun These scholars had an incalculable influence on methods of research and editing, due in part to the Islamic practice of isnad which emphasized fidelity to written record, checking sources, and skeptical inquiry. A Hadith was originally just an Arabic story As the stories began to be used formally it became common to provide their chain of transmitters (or sanad سند plural

By preserving Latin and Greek texts which would otherwise have been lost, they helped to rekindle the search for knowledge and methods of natural philosophy which would blaze again during the Renaissance. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere

China

The enormous encyclopedic work in China of the Four Great Books of Song, compiled by the 11th century during the early Song Dynasty (960–1279), was a massive literary undertaking for the time. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Four Great Books of Song ( was compiled by Li Fang and others during the Song Dynasty ( 960 - 1279) The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms The last encyclopedia of the four, the Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau, amounted to 9. The Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau ( was the largest Encyclopedia compiled during the Chinese Song Dynasty ( 960 - 1279 AD 4 million Chinese characters in 1000 written volumes. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( There were many great encyclopedists throughout Chinese history, including the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) with his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, the statesman, inventor, and agronomist Wang Zhen (active 1290–1333) with his Nong Shu of 1313, and the written Tiangong Kaiwu of Song Yingxing (1587–1666), the latter of whom was termed the "Diderot of China" by British historian Joseph Needham. Shen Kuo or Shen Kua ( (1031&ndash1095 style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng, was a Polymathic Chinese The Dream Pool Essays ( Pinyin: Meng Xi Bi Tan; Wade-Giles: Meng Ch'i Pi T'an Chinese: 夢溪筆談／梦溪笔谈 This article is about Wang Zhen agronomist and inventor For other historical figures with this name see Wang Zhen (disambiguation. Song Yingxing ( Traditional Chinese:宋應星 Simplified Chinese:宋应星 Wade Giles: Sung Ying-Hsing; 1587-1666 AD was a Chinese Denis Diderot ( October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French Philosopher and writer Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA ( December 9, 1900 – March 24 1995) was a British ^[9]

The Chinese emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty oversaw the compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia, one of the largest encyclopedias in history, which was completed in 1408 and comprised over 11,000 handwritten volumes, 370 million Chinese characters, of which only about 400 remain today. The Emperor of China ( refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning since the founding of the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC until the fall of The Yongle Emperor ( Wade-Giles: Yung-lo May 2, 1360 &ndash August 12, 1424) born Zhu Di ( Chu Ti The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led The Yongle Dadian Encyclopedia ( literally “The Great Canon or Vast Documents of the Yongle Era” was a Chinese compilation commissioned by the Chinese In the succeeding dynasty, emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty personally composed 40,000 poems as part of a 4. Emperor Qianlong (Chinese 乾隆 Qiánlóng, Wade-Giles' Ch'ien-Lung', Mongolian Tengeriig Tetgesen Khaan, born Hongli (弘历 September Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China 7 million page library in 4 divisions, including thousands of essays, called the Siku Quanshu which is probably the largest collection of books in the world. The Siku Quanshu, variously translated as the Imperial Collection of Four, Emperor's Four Treasuries, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature It is instructive to compare his title for this knowledge, Watching the waves in a Sacred Sea to a Western-style title for all knowledge. Encyclopedic works, both in imitation of Chinese encyclopedias and as independent works of their own origin, have been known to exist in Japan since the ninth century CE.

These works were all hand copied and thus rarely available, beyond wealthy patrons or monastic men of learning: they were expensive, and usually written for those extending knowledge rather than those using it. ^[7]

17th–19th centuries

Encyclopédie, 1773

The beginnings of the modern idea of the general-purpose, widely distributed printed encyclopedia precede the 18th century encyclopedists. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia or a systematic dictionary of the sciences arts and crafts was a general An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge However, Chambers' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1728), and the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert (1751 onwards), as well as Encyclopædia Britannica and the Conversations-Lexikon, were the first to realize the form we would recognize today, with a comprehensive scope of topics, discussed in depth and organized in an accessible, systematic method -- although it is notable that to an extent Chambers, in 1728, was following the still earlier lead of John Harris' Lexicon Technicum, of 1704 and later editions (see also below), which was also by its title and content "An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves". Cyclopaedia or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences ( folio, 2 vols Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia or a systematic dictionary of the sciences arts and crafts was a general The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language Encyclopedia published by Brockhaus. Lexicon Technicum Or An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences Explaining not only the Terms of Art but the Arts Themselves was in some respects the first alphabetical

Much encyclopaedism of the French Renaissance was based upon the notion of not including every fact known to humans, but only that knowledge that was necessary, where necessity was judged by a wide variety of criteria, leading to works of greatly varying sizes. French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century Béroalde de Verville laid the foundation for his encyclopaedic works in a hexameral poem entitled Les cognoissances nécessaires for example. Hexameral literature is the medieval Christian literature based on the creation story from the Book of Genesis. Often, the criteria had moral bases, such as in the case of Pierre de La Primaudaye's L'Academie Française and Guillaume Telin's Bref sommaire des sept vertus &c. Pierre de La Primaudaye (1546-1620 was a French writer He is known particularly for L'Academie Française, which was influential in English translations from 1584 onwards . Encyclopaedists encountered several problems with this approach, including how to decide what to omit as unnecessary, how to structure knowledge that resisted structure (often simply as a consequence of the sheer amount of material that deserved inclusion), and how to cope with the influx of newly discovered knowledge and the effects that it had on prior structures. ^[10]

The term encyclopaedia was coined by 15th century humanists who misread copies of their texts of Pliny and Quintilian, and combined the two Greek words "enkuklios paideia" into one word. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (ca 35 – ca 100 was a Roman Rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly

The English physician and philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne, specifically employed the word encyclopaedia as early as 1646 in the preface to the reader to describe his Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, a series of refutations of common errors of his age. Sir Thomas Browne ( October 19, 1605 &ndash October 19, 1682) was an English author of varied works which disclose his wide learning Sir Thomas Browne 's vast work refuting the common errors and superstitions of his age Pseudodoxia Epidemica, first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent Browne structured his encyclopaedia upon the time-honoured schemata of the Renaissance, the so-called 'scale of creation' which ascends a hierarchical ladder via the mineral, vegetable, animal, human, planetary and cosmological worlds. Browne's compendium went through no less than five editions, each revised and augmented, the last edition appearing in 1672. Pseudodoxia Epidemica found itself upon the bookshelves of many educated European readers for throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries it was translated, for many years it was not thought compatible with the French and Dutcheze, into the French, Dutch and German languages as well as Latin. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.

Harris' Lexicon Technicum, title page of 2nd edition, 1708

John Harris is often credited with introducing the now-familiar alphabetic format in 1704 with his English Lexicon Technicum: Or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves -- to give its full title. Lexicon Technicum Or An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences Explaining not only the Terms of Art but the Arts Themselves was in some respects the first alphabetical John Harris (c 1666 - September 7, 1719) was an English writer Organized alphabetically, its content does indeed contain explanation not merely of the terms used in the arts and sciences, but of the arts and sciences themselves. Sir Isaac Newton contributed his only published work on chemistry to the second volume of 1710. Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Its emphasis was on science -- and conformably to the broad 18th-century understanding of the term 'science', its content extends beyond what would be called science or technology today, and includes topics from the humanities and fine arts, e. g. a substantial number from law, commerce, music, and heraldry. At about 1200 pages, its scope can be considered as more that of an encyclopedic dictionary than a true encyclopedia. Harris himself considered it a dictionary; the work is one of the first technical dictionaries in any language.

Ephraim Chambers published his Cyclopaedia in 1728. Ephraim Chambers (c 1680 - 15 May 1740) was an English writer and Encyclopedist, who is primarily known for producing the Cyclopaedia Cyclopaedia or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences ( folio, 2 vols It included a broad scope of subjects, used an alphabetic arrangement, relied on many different contributors and included the innovation of cross-referencing other sections within articles. Chambers has been referred to as the father of the modern encyclopedia for this two-volume work.

A French translation of Chambers' work inspired the Encyclopédie, perhaps the most famous early encyclopedia, notable for its scope, the quality of some contributions, and its political and cultural impact in the years leading up to the French revolution. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia or a systematic dictionary of the sciences arts and crafts was a general The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an The Encyclopédie was edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot and published in 17 volumes of articles, issued from 1751 to 1765, and 11 volumes of illustrations, issued from 1762 to 1772. Denis Diderot ( October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French Philosopher and writer Five volumes of supplementary material and a two volume index, supervised by other editors, were issued from 1776 to 1780 by Charles Joseph Panckoucke. Charles-Joseph Panckoucke ( Lille, 26 November 1736 - 19 December 1798) was a French writer and publisher, notable

The Encyclopédie represented the essence of the French Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century ^[11] The prospectus stated an ambitious goal: the Encyclopédie was to be a systematic analysis of the "order and interrelations of human knowledge. "^[12] Diderot, in his Encyclopédie article of the same name, went further: "to collect all the knowledge that now lies scattered over the face of the earth, to make known its general structure to the men among we live, and to transmit it to those who will come after us," to make men not only wiser but also "more virtuous and more happy. "^[13]

Realizing the inherent problems with the model of knowledge he had created, Diderot's view of his own success in writing the Encyclopédie were far from ecstatic. Diderot envisioned the perfect encyclopedia as more than the sum of its parts. In his own article on the encyclopedia, Diderot also wrote, "Were an analytical dictionary of the sciences and arts nothing more than a methodical combination of their elements, I would still ask whom it behooves to fabricate good elements. " Diderot viewed the ideal encyclopedia as an index of connections. He realized that all knowledge could never be amassed in one work, but he hoped the relations among subjects could be.

The Encyclopédie in turn inspired the venerable Encyclopædia Britannica, which had a modest beginning in Scotland: the first edition, issued between 1768 and 1771, had just three hastily completed volumes - A-B, C-L, and M-Z - with a total of 2,391 pages. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc By 1797, when the third edition was completed, it had been expanded to 18 volumes addressing a full range of topics, with articles contributed by a range of authorities on their subjects.

The German-language Conversations-Lexikon was published at Leipzig from 1796 to 1808, in 6 volumes. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language Encyclopedia published by Brockhaus. This sort of fix restores section edit linkpoints to where they belong Paralleling other 18th century encyclopedias, its scope was expanded beyond that of earlier publications, in an effort at comprehensiveness. It was, however, intended not for scholarly use but to provide results of research and discovery in a simple and popular form without extensive detail. This format, a contrast to the Encyclopædia Britannica, was widely imitated by later 19th century encyclopedias in Britain, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and other countries. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Of the influential late-18th century and early-19th century encyclopedias, the Conversations-Lexikon is perhaps most similar in form to today's encyclopedias.

The early years of the 19th century saw a flowering of encyclopedia publishing in the United Kingdom, Europe and America. In England Rees's Cyclopaedia (1802–1819) contains an enormous amount in information about the industrial and scientific revolutions of the time. Rees's Cyclopædia, or The New Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences was edited by Revd A feature of these publications is the high-quality illustrations made by engravers like Wilson Lowry of art work supplied by specialist draftsmen like John Farey, Jr. Encyclopaedias were published in Scotland, as a result of the Scottish Enlightenment, for education there was of a higher standard than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Wilson Lowry ( January 24, 1762 - June 23, 1824) was an English Engraver. John Farey, Jr (1791-1851 was a mechanical engineer. He was the eldest son of John Farey Sr Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

The 17-volume Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle and its supplements were published in France from 1866 to 1890. The Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle (Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century often called the Larousse du dix-neuvième is an Encyclopedic dictionary This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

Encyclopædia Britannica appeared in various editions throughout the century, and the growth of popular education and the Mechanics Institutes, spearheaded by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge led to the production of the Penny Cyclopaedia, as its title suggests issued in weekly numbers at a penny each like a newspaper. Popular education is at the crossroads between Politics and Pedagogy, and strongly relies on the democratic ideal of the Enlightenment, which considered Historically Mechanics' Institutes were educational establishments formed to provide Adult education, particularly in technical subjects to working men The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, founded in 1826, was a Whiggish London organisation that published inexpensive texts intended to adapt The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was a multi-volume Encyclopedia edited by George Long and published A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint.

In the early 20th century, the Encyclopædia Britannica reached its eleventh edition, and inexpensive encyclopedias such as Harmsworth's Encyclopaedia and Everyman's Encyclopaedia were common.

20th century

1913 advertisement for Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest and one of the largest contemporary English encyclopedias. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc

In the United States, the 1950s and 1960s saw the introduction of several large popular encyclopedias, often sold on installment plans. The best known of these were World Book and Funk and Wagnalls. The World Book Encyclopedia is according to its publisher in the United States, "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world Funk & Wagnalls is a Publisher based in New York City known for its reference works including an Encyclopedia, content from which became a part of

The second half of the 20th century also saw the publication of several encyclopedias that were notable for synthesizing important topics in specific fields, often by means of new works authored by significant researchers. Such encyclopedias included The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (first published in 1967 and now in its second edition), and Elsevier's Handbooks In Economics [1] series. Encyclopedias of at least one volume in size exist for most if not all Academic disciplines, including, typically, such narrow topics such as bioethics and African American history. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethical controversies brought about by advances in Biology and Medicine. African American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United

By the late 20th century, encyclopedias were being published on CD-ROMs for use with personal computers. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Microsoft's Encarta was a landmark example, as it had no print version. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Encarta is a Digital Multimedia Encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. Articles were supplemented with video and audio files as well as numerous high-quality images. Similar encyclopedias were also being published online, and made available by subscription.

Traditional encyclopedias are written by a number of employed text writers, usually people with an academic degree, and distributed as proprietary content. A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of Higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing The word proprietary indicates that a party or proprietor exercises private Ownership, control or use over an item of Property. Encyclopedias are essentially derivative from what has gone before, and particularly in the 19th century, copyright infringement was common among encyclopedia editors. 'Copyright infringement' (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is covered by Copyright law in a manner that violates However, modern encyclopedias are not merely larger compendia, including all that came before them. To make space for modern topics, valuable material of historic use regularly had to be discarded, at least before the advent of digital encyclopedias. Moreover, the opinions and world views of a particular generation can be observed in the encyclopedic writing of the time. For these reasons, old encyclopedias are a useful source of historical information, especially for a record of changes in science and technology. ^[14] As of 2007, old encyclopedias whose copyright has expired, such as the 1911 edition of Britannica, are also the only free content encyclopedias released in print form. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone _____ __ / ___/ / /_ ____ ____ \__ \ / __/ / __ \ / __ \ ___/ / / /_ (In English; works such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia which were created in the public domain exist as free content encyclopedias in other languages. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia ( Большая Советская Энциклопедия, or БСЭ; transliterated Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya )

Free encyclopedia

The concept of a new free encyclopedia began with the Interpedia proposal on Usenet in 1993, which outlined an Internet-based online encyclopedia to which anyone could submit content and that would be freely accessible. The Interpedia was the name given to the first proposals for an Internet Encyclopedia which would allow anyone to contribute by writing articles and submitting them Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system An internet encyclopedia project is a large database of useful information accessible via World Wide Web Early projects in this vein included Everything2 and Open Site. Everything2, Everything2, or E2 for short is a collaborative Web -based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written Open-Site, the Open Encyclopedia Project, is a free Internet Encyclopedia founded in 2002 by Michael J In 1999, Richard Stallman proposed the GNUPedia, an online encyclopedia which, similar to the GNU operating system, would be a "generic" resource. Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist GNUPedia (later renamed GNE) was a project to create a Free content Encyclopedia (licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License) under the GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. The concept was very similar to Interpedia, but more in line with Stallman's GNU philosophy. GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software.

It was not until Nupedia and later Wikipedia that a stable and thriving free encyclopedia project was able to be established on the Internet. Nupedia was an English-language Web-based Encyclopedia whose articles were written by experts and licensed as Free content. ***************************************************************************************** * * The English Wikipedia became the world's largest encyclopedia in 2004 at the 300,000 article stage ^[15] and by late 2005, Wikipedia had produced over two million articles in more than 80 languages with content licensed under the copyleft GNU Free Documentation License. Copyleft is a play on the word Copyright and describes the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software As of July 2007, Wikipedia has over 2. July 2007 is the seventh month of that year It began on a Sunday and 31 days later ended on a Tuesday. 0 million articles in English and well over 8 million combined in over 250 languages.

21st century

Encarta visual browser, an example of 21st century encyclopedias. Encarta is a Digital Multimedia Encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation.

Wikipedia is one of the first "user generated content" encyclopedias. ***************************************************************************************** * * User generated content ( UGC, often hyphenated also known as Consumer Generated Media ( CGM) or User created Content ( UCC) refers

The encyclopedia's hierarchical structure and evolving nature is particularly adaptable to a disk-based or on-line computer format, and all major printed multi-subject encyclopedias had moved to this method of delivery by the end of the 20th century. Disk storage is a general category of a Computer storage mechanisms in which data is recorded on planar round and rotating surfaces ( disks, discs, or A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Disk-based (typically DVD-ROM or CD-ROM format) publications have the advantage of being cheaply produced and easily portable. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Additionally, they can include media which are impossible to store in the printed format, such as animations, audio, and video. Electronic media are media that utilize Electronics or Electromechanical energy for the End user ( Audience) to access the content The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames Video is the technology of electronically capturing, Recording, processing storing transmitting and reconstructing a sequence of Still images Hyperlinking between conceptually related items is also a significant benefit. In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another On-line encyclopedias, like Wikipedia, offer the additional advantage of being (potentially) dynamic: new information can be presented almost immediately, rather than waiting for the next release of a static format (as with a disk- or paper-based publication). ***************************************************************************************** * * Many printed encyclopedias traditionally published annual supplemental volumes ("yearbooks") to update events between editions, as a partial solution to the problem of staying up-to-date, but this of course required the reader to check both the main volumes and the supplemental volume(s). Some disk-based encyclopedias offer subscription-based access to online updates, which are then integrated with the content already on the user's hard disk in a manner not possible with a printed encyclopedia.

Information in a printed encyclopedia necessarily needs some form of hierarchical structure. Traditionally, the method employed is to present the information ordered alphabetically by the article title. However with the advent of dynamic electronic formats the need to impose a pre-determined structure is less necessary. Nonetheless, most electronic encyclopedias still offer a range of organizational strategies for the articles, such as by subject area or alphabetically.

CD-ROM and Internet-based encyclopedias also offer greater search abilities than printed versions. While the printed versions rely on indexes to assist in searching for topics, computer accessible versions allow searching through article text for keywords or phrases.

See also

• List of encyclopedias
• Encyclopedic dictionary
• Wikipedia:Size comparisons
• Biographical dictionary
• Dictionary
• Lexicon
• Thesaurus
• History of science and technology
• Library and information science
• Lexicography

Notes

References

External links

• CNET's encyclopedia meta-search (includes Wikipedia)
• Encyclopaedia and Hypertext
• Internet Accuracy Project - Biographical errors in encyclopedias and almanacs
• Encyclopedia - Diderot's article on the Encyclopedia from the original Encyclopédie. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia or a systematic dictionary of the sciences arts and crafts was a general
• What makes a scholarly encyclopedia?
• De expetendis et fugiendis rebus - First Renaissance encyclopedia
• Errors and inconsistencies in several printed reference books and encyclopedias
• Digital encyclopedias put the world at your fingertips - CNET article
• Librarians' Internet Index - a list of encyclopedias online
• Encyclopedias online University of Wisconsin - Stout listing by category
• Chambers' Cyclopaedia, 1728, with the 1753 supplement
• Encyclopædia Americana, 1851, Francis Lieber ed. CNET Networks Inc is a media company based in San Francisco California, United States, and is part of CBS Interactive, owned Dr Francis Lieber ( March 18, 1800 &ndash October 2, 1872) originally known as Franz Lieber was a German-American (Boston: Mussey & Co. ) at the University of Michigan Making of America site
• Encyclopædia Britannica, articles and illustrations from 9th ed. , 1875–89, and 10th ed. , 1902–03.
• Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. , 1911, at the LoveToKnow site.