Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" is the English-language encyclopaedia/encyclopedia that was in print for the longest time: it lasted 244 years. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, as three volumes. (This first edition is available in facsimile.) The encyclopaedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Beginning with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the "Britannica" shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. In 1933, the "Britannica" became the first encyclopaedia to adopt "continuous revision", in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule. In March 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced it would no longer publish printed editions, and would focus instead on "Encyclopædia Britannica Online".
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
This 15th edition had no general index, which had been a feature of the "Britannica" since its 7th edition; even in the 2nd edition, individual long articles had their own indices. The idea of Mortimer J. Adler was that the "Propædia" and the "Micropædia" could serve the role of an index. More generally, Dr. Adler felt that the "Britannica" should not merely serve as a reference work, but also aspire to be a categorization of "omne scibile" (everything knowable), to fulfill Francis Bacon's grand conception of epistemology. Thus, the "Propædia" was intended to be the road-map of all knowledge, within which every fact, technique, and theory could be organized. With this edition EB became the first encyclopedia that serves both functions of fact-checking and self-education.