Encyclopedia

III

Effects of the Age of Enlightenment

The modern type of encyclopedia was largely the result of the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, a period of intellectual curiosity and experimentation. One of the trends during this time was the increased desire to make reference works useful to a wide audience. Some works continued to use the logical arrangement of the material by subjects. This model was followed by numerous German works of the 18th and 19th centuries that were the products of philosophic schools based on the ideas of German philosophers Baron Christian von Wolff, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. These works include the Lehrbuch der Wissenschaftskunde (Textbook of Scientific Studies, 1792) of Johann Joachim Eschenburg, the Versuch einer systematischen Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften (Attempt at a Systematic Encyclopedia of Science, 1796-1798) by Wilhelm Traugott Krug, and Hegel’s own Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, 1817).

In general, however, the arrangement of topics by subject gave way to an alphabetical arrangement by key words, names, or special topics. In this manner the form of the encyclopedia became similar to that of the dictionary, and the word dictionary (or lexicon) has been used in the title of many encyclopedic works.

A

New Approaches to Creating an Encyclopedia

The encyclopedia eventually became a work of reference in the strictest sense of the word: a work for occasional use, in which readers can locate a particular topic or item of information under the proper term in alphabetical order. To varying degrees, modern works have been based on this practical aim and method. Some are more like dictionaries and subdivide their material into many short articles. Others combine the material as much as possible under broad titles. In its extreme form, the short-entry approach has given rise to the modern encyclopedic dictionary and encyclopedias such as the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siècle (Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century) of French grammarian, lexicographer, and encyclopedist Pierre Athanase Larousse. The alternate approach has given rise to encyclopedias that are basically collections of monographs (longer pieces of writing on single topics).

Most modern encyclopedias employ both principles to varying degrees, but they tend more toward the dictionary type because it can serve both the specialized and general reader. Because information changes so rapidly, the short-entry approach also allows publishers more flexibility in adding topics to their encyclopedias. Most encyclopedia publishers employ a staff of specialists, both as compilers and as editors. The editors, who include scientists, historians, geographers, and various other specialists, collect knowledge and present it in a manner that is accurate yet clear enough for general readers to understand.

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B

Dictionary-Style Encyclopedias

The first notable encyclopedia of the dictionary type appeared in 1674: Le grand dictionnaire historique, ou mélange curieux de l’histoire sacrée et profane (The Great Historical Dictionary, or Anthology of Sacred and Secular History), by French priest and scholar Louis Moreri, is a special dictionary of history, mythology, genealogy, and biography. It was revised many times and was translated into English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Among those who undertook the task of correcting Moreri’s original errors and omissions was French philosopher and critic Pierre Bayle, whose Dictionnaire historique et critique (Historical and Critical Dictionary, 2 volumes, 1697) is the most famous encyclopedic work of the 17th century. It was frequently translated and reissued, and it won a permanent place in the history of literature as well as lexicography because of the simplicity and clearness of its style.

In England the dictionary method was followed by John Harris, who compiled a Lexicon Technicum; or an Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves, published first in one volume in 1704 and then in a second edition of two volumes from 1708 to 1710. This work is generally considered the first alphabetically arranged encyclopedia in the English language. A supplement “by a society of gentlemen” appeared in 1744 and extended the contents to cover the customary range of subjects; the text was illustrated with diagrams and figures. Harris’s amended Lexicon long remained in popular use.

In Germany an excellent Lexicon Universale (4 volumes, 1677-1683) was compiled by Johann Jacob Hoffmann. Notable also are the lexicons edited by Johann Hübner in 1704 and 1712. They were the products of many minds and furnish the first example of the systematic collaboration of scholars that characterizes the modern encyclopedia. An English work by Ephraim Chambers—Cyclopaedia; or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Containing an Explanation of the Terms and an Account of the Things signified thereby in the several Arts … and … Sciences,… Compiled from the Best Authors …, in two volumes (1728)—is more comprehensive than Harris’s Lexicon. The systematic use of cross-references, enabling the reader to obtain a connected view of general subjects, was a particularly valuable contribution. The Cyclopaedia went through a number of editions during Chambers’s lifetime, and he has commonly been considered the father of English encyclopedic lexicography.

Chambers’s work was reedited by Abraham Rees in 1778 and again between 1781 and 1786, and it was finally brought out as the valuable New Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (45 volumes, 1802-1820). This work also influenced similar literature on the European continent. A translation of the original Cyclopaedia, issued in Venice (9 volumes, 1748-1749), was the first completed Italian encyclopedia.

C

Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie

A French translation of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia was the foundation of the famous Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia or Systematic Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Trades), commonly called the Encyclopédie. The task of revising the translation of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia was given to French encyclopedist, philosopher, and dramatist Denis Diderot. In his hands it developed into an immense intellectual enterprise. Associated with Diderot was a large group of the most distinguished scholars of the age, including mathematician and philosopher Jean le Rond d'Alembert, who undertook the editing of the mathematical articles and wrote the famous preface. Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and scholar Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton also worked on the project. The greater part of the work, however, fell to Diderot, who was specially charged with the articles relating to the arts and trades, as well as those on history and ancient philosophy. In addition, he undertook the general revision and coordination of the material contributed by the others.

In form the Encyclopédie is essentially an encyclopedic dictionary, containing both the common words of the language and proper names, accompanied by lexical descriptions and definitions and also, in most cases, by encyclopedic comments. Its purpose as described in its preface was “to exhibit as far as possible the order and system of human knowledge, and as a dictionnaire raisonné [descriptive dictionary] of the sciences, the arts, and trades, to contain the fundamental principles and the most essential details of every science and every art, whether liberal or mechanical.”

The Encyclopédie presented definite philosophical views and was considered radical by conservative elements of society, who subjected it to condemnation and its editor to persecution. This aspect of the Encyclopédie has given it an important place in the history of modern thought. Those who were associated with it or accepted its views became identified as Encyclopedists, a term that denoted a definite social philosophy and defined a movement. The Encyclopédie was published between 1751 and 1772 in 28 volumes, including 11 volumes of illustration plates. Five supplementary volumes with more than 200 plates appeared in 1776 and 1777, and an analytical table of contents in two volumes appeared in 1780. Many editions followed.

In 1781 French publisher Charles Joseph Panckoucke published the plan of an encyclopedia that divided the material of Diderot’s work into a series of independent dictionaries of particular subjects, to be compiled by special editors. This scheme was carried out, after Panckoucke’s death, in 167 volumes. Each of its 51 parts covered a separate subject, and it was completed in 1832.

D

Monographic Encyclopedias

As the dictionary-style encyclopedia grew in importance, so did the monographic encyclopedia. A major example is the Encyclopædia Britannica, first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 100 parts from 1768 to 1771. It was then bound into three volumes. This work was planned by a “Society of Gentlemen” composed of three Scots: editor William Smellie, who wrote the principal articles, printer Colin Macfarquhar, and engraver Andrew Bell. It contained distinct treatises and long articles but also included definitions of technical and other terms in alphabetical order. These general characteristics have been retained in each of the successive editions since the 18th century.

The second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica was published between 1777 and 1784, also in parts, and was eventually accumulated in ten volumes. After publication of the 9th edition, the encyclopedia was purchased by American publishers Horace Hooper and Walter M. Jackson in 1901. The 11th edition (29 volumes), noted for its scholarship and careful editing, was issued in 1911. In 1920 the encyclopedia was bought by Sears, Roebuck and Co., but it retained Horace Hooper as its publisher.

An extreme example of the monographic encyclopedia is the Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, in alphabetischer Folge (Universal Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts, in Alphabetical Order), edited by Germans Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber. The work contained articles as long as 1,000 pages and was begun in 1818. The 168th and final volume was issued in 1914.

One of the most useful and successful of the 19th-century reference works was the Konversations-Lexikon (Conversation-Dictionary), published between 1796 and 1811 by German lexicographer Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. Konversations-Lexikon formed the basis of the original Encyclopedia Americana (1829-1833) and of Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (10 volumes, 1859-1868), a successful English work named after British publishers Robert Chambers and his brother William that currently comprises 15 volumes (new revised edition, 1973). After 1928 Konversations-Lexikon became known as Der grosse Brockhaus (The Great Brockhaus).

In the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopedya (Great Soviet Encyclopedia) was first published between 1926 and 1947 in 64 volumes. A second edition in 51 volumes appeared between 1950 and 1958. A 30-volume third edition began publication in 1970 and was completed in 1979. An English version, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a translation of the third edition, was published in 32 volumes in 1983.

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