Encyclopedia

III

Effects of the Enlightenment

The modern type of encyclopedia was largely the result of the cultural movement known as the Enlightenment and the desire to make works of this sort universally accessible. Some works continued to use the logical arrangement of the material by subjects, particularly numerous German works of the 18th and 19th centuries that were the products of philosophic schools based on the ideas of the German philosophers G. W. F. Hegel, Immanuel Kant, and Christian Wolff. They 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 Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, 1817) and Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1728) on which was based the great Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers (1751-1776) compiled by d’Alembert and Diderot in 35 volumes. In general, however, the subject arrangement gave way to the present universally accepted 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 freely used as the title of encyclopedic works.

A

Short-Entry and Monographic Encyclopedias

The encyclopedia became a work of reference in the strictest sense of the word: a work for occasional use, in which a particular topic or item of information could be located under the proper term in alphabetical order. Later works were based on this practical aim and method to varying degrees. Some showed a growing tendency to approach the form of the dictionary by increasing the number and variety of the vocabulary words (topics) and correspondingly subdividing the material into many short articles. Others restricted the vocabulary and combined the material as much as possible under comprehensive titles, as in the earlier works. In its extreme form the short-entry approach gave rise to the modern encyclopedic dictionary and such encyclopedias as the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siècle (Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century) of the French grammarian, lexicographer, and encyclopedist Pierre Athanase Larousse. The alternative approach gave rise to encyclopedias that were basically collections of monographs.

Most modern encyclopedias employ both principles in varying degrees. Encyclopedia makers are inclined more and more to adopt the dictionary type as better suited to the needs of both the specialized and general reader, and as essential to the adequate presentation of the vast and rapidly increasing accumulation of information in such areas as science, history, and biography. Another important characteristic of the modern method is the employment of a large staff of specialists, both as compilers and as editors. Some degree of cooperation of this kind was characteristic of many of the encyclopedias of the 17th and 18th centuries, notably the great work of Diderot and d’Alembert (described below); in the 19th century, however, an elaborate system developed. Most general encyclopedias today include among their editorial advisers and consultants a large cross-section of scientists, historians, theologians, and various other specialists. The goal of the editorial staff is to collect the specialized knowledge of the time and to present it in a manner that lay people can understand and that specialists can accept.

B

Encyclopedias of the Dictionary Style

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 the French priest and scholar Louis Moréri, 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 Moréri’s original errors and omissions was the French philosopher and critic Pierre Bayle, whose Dictionnaire historique et critique (Critical and Historical Dictionary, 2 vols., 1694-1697) is the most famous encyclopedic work of the 17th century. It was frequently translated and reissued and 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 (1704) and then in a second edition of two volumes (1708-1710). 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 vols., 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 that 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 core 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 founder 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 vols., 1802-1820). This work also influenced similar Continental European literature. A translation of the original Cyclopaedia, issued in Venice (9 vols., 1748-1749), was the first completed Italian encyclopedia.

C

Diderot’s Encyclopedia

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), usually called L’encyclopédie. The task of revising the translation of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia was given to the French encyclopedist, philosopher, and dramatist Denis Diderot, and 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 the mathematician and philosopher Jean le Rond d’Alembert, who undertook the editing of the mathematical articles and wrote the famous preface. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the scholar Louis Jean Marie Daubenton also worked on the project. The greater part of the work, however, fell to Diderot himself, who was especially 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 book 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”. L’encyclopédie was the vehicle of definite philosophical views and was considered sufficiently radical and materialistic by the orthodox to subject it to condemnation and its editor to persecution. This aspect of the work 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 encyclopédistes, a term that denoted a definite social philosophy and defined a movement.

L’encyclopédie was published between 1751 and 1772 in 28 volumes, including 11 volumes of plates. Four supplementary volumes with more than 200 plates appeared in 1776-1777, and an analytical table of contents in two volumes in 1780. Many editions followed.

In 1781 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 specialist editors. This scheme was carried out, after Panckoucke’s death, in 167 volumes; it had 51 parts, each covering a separate subject, and was completed in 1832.

D

The Monographic Encyclopedia

As the dictionary type of encyclopedia grew in importance, so did the monographic encyclopedia attempting to encompass the sum of human knowledge. A major example is the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in Edinburgh in 100 weekly parts from 1768 to 1771. It was then bound into three quarto volumes. This work was planned by a “Society of Gentlemen”, composed of three Scots: the editor William Smellie, who wrote the principal articles, the printer Colin Macfarquhar, and the 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, published between 1777 and 1784, also in weekly parts, was eventually accumulated in 10 volumes; the 11th (29 vols.), noted for its scholarship and careful editing, was issued in 1911. In 1920 the encyclopedia was bought by the American mail-order retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company, and subsequent editions were edited in London and New York. Thereafter it remained in American hands until 1996, when it was acquired by the Swiss-based financier Jacob Safra. It remains, in its successive print editions and continuous revisions, in a class of its own among encyclopedias. Like many other bound-volume encyclopedias it is kept up-to-date with annual yearbooks that supplement the basic encyclopedic entries.

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 Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber, which contained articles as long as a thousand pages. 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 (literally, Conversation-Dictionary), published between 1796 and 1808 by the German lexicographer Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. The tenth edition of the Konversations-Lexikon, which was known after 1928 as Der grosse Brockhaus, formed the basis of the original Encyclopedia Americana (1829-1833; see below) and of Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (10 vols., 1850-1868), a successful British work named after the British publishers Robert Chambers and his brother William and currently comprising 15 volumes (revised ed., 1973).

In the Soviet Union the Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopedya (Great Soviet Encyclopedia) was published first between 1926 and 1947 in 64 volumes. It gave a heavily censored, Marxist interpretation of human achievement. A second edition in 51 volumes appeared between 1950 and 1958. A 30-volume third edition began publication in 1970; it was completed in 1979. An English version, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a translation of the third edition, was published in 32 volumes in 1983. Since the fall of Communism, Russian scholars have attempted a more objective, comprehensive compilation of encyclopedic publications.

A three-volume Canadian Encyclopedia (1st ed., 1985), designed to replace Encyclopedia Canadiana (10 vols., 11th ed., 1975), was revised and expanded to four volumes in 1988. Comprehensive in scope, it nevertheless maintains a Canadian emphasis throughout.