When was the first publication of the Encyclopedia Britannica?
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".
Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition
Like the second edition, the volumes were written over a long period, from volume 1 in 1788 to volume 18 in 1797. Unlike the second edition, the title pages were not printed with their volumes but were printed and sent to subscribers when the set was complete, and dated the year of completion. All volumes of the 3rd edition have title pages dated 1797. The encyclopedia continued to be printed, in complete sets, for many years, with all the volumes still dated 1797. In addition to the legitimate sets printed in Edinburgh, unauthorized sets were being printed in Dublin by James Moore and Philadelphia by Thomas Dobson. In Edinburgh, 10,000 complete sets were printed, according to Robert Kerr or 13,000 copies according to Constable. In addition, there were 2,000 copies of "Dobson"s and an unknown number by Moore. By contrast, only 1,500 copies of the second edition were printed, all unbound. The quality of the printing appears better than in previous editions.
Mary Ritter Beard
After the dissolution of the World Centre for Women's Archives in 1940, Beard's next project was an analysis of Encyclopædia Britannica's representation of women, produced following the suggestion of Walter Yust, chief editor of the "Britannica". Beard convened a team of fellow female scholars (Dora Edinger, Janet A. Selig, and Marjorie White) to produce "A Study of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in Relation to its Treatment of Women". Beard and her colleagues worked on the report over an 18-month period and in November 1942 delivered its 42 pages to Yust. However, the recommendations of the report were ignored despite Yust's expressed interest and assurances that the "Britannica" would include improvements. Hence, Beard was disappointed with the effort and in 1947 correspondence she suggested that women no longer write for the "Britannica".
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
After a heated legal dispute and all-too-public corporate wrangling over ownership of the "Britannica" (1908–1909), Hooper bought out Walter Jackson, becoming the sole owner of the "Britannica". The public furor caused "The Times" to cancel its sponsorship contract with Hooper, feeling that the interests of the newspaper were not being served. After failing to win over Oxford University, Hooper managed to secure Cambridge University as a new sponsor; thus, the 11th edition was published initially by Cambridge University Press, and scholars from Cambridge University were allowed to review the text and veto any overly aggressive advertising. Perhaps because of this, the "Britannica" encountered financial difficulties, whereupon it was licensed to Sears Roebuck and Co. of Chicago, who issued a physically smaller but complete version known as the "handy edition," with each volume almost pocket-sized. The owner of Sears, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, was friends with Horace Hooper and enthusiastic about the "Britannica's" promise; he single-handedly saved the "Britannica" from bankruptcy several times over the next fifteen years. Although Sears' handy set was successful in 1915–1916, sales dropped significantly when the United States entered World War I.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Despite the policy of continuous revision, the 14th edition of the "Britannica" gradually became outdated. Beginning in the early 1960s, the failings of the 14th edition began to be collated and published by physicist Harvey Einbinder, culminating in his highly critical 390-page book, "The Myth of the Britannica" (1964). Goaded into action, the "Britannica" began to work on a new edition, the current 15th.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" has received criticism, especially as editions become outdated. It is expensive to produce a completely new edition of the "Britannica," and its editors delay for as long as fiscally sensible (usually about 25 years). For example, despite continuous revision, the 14th edition became outdated after 35 years (1929–1964). When American physicist Harvey Einbinder detailed its failings in his 1964 book, "The Myth of the Britannica", the encyclopaedia was provoked to produce the 15th edition, which required 10 years of work. It is still difficult to keep the "Britannica" current; one recent critic writes, "it is not difficult to find articles that are out-of-date or in need of revision", noting that the longer articles are more likely to be outdated than the shorter articles. Information in the is sometimes inconsistent with the corresponding article(s), mainly because of the failure to update one or the other. The bibliographies of the articles have been criticized for being more out-of-date than the articles themselves.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
In 1985, the "Britannica" responded to reader requests by restoring the index as a two-volume set. The number of topics indexed by the "Britannica" has fluctuated from 500,000 (1985, the same as in 1954) to 400,000 (1989,1991) to 700,000 in the current 2007 print version. Presumably, this recent increase reflects the introduction of efficient electronic indexing, since the size of the encyclopedia has remained nearly constant at approximately 40 million words from 1954 to the present and far less than 40% of the encyclopedia has changed from 1985 to 2007.
Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition
The "Britannica" was the idea of Colin Macfarquhar, a bookseller and printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, both of Edinburgh. They conceived of the "Britannica" as a conservative reaction to the French "Encyclopédie" of Denis Diderot (published 1751–1766), which was widely viewed as heretical. The "Encyclopédie" had begun as a French translation of the popular English encyclopedia, "Cyclopaedia" published by Ephraim Chambers in 1728. Although later editions of Chambers' "Cyclopaedia" were still popular, and despite the commercial failure of other English encyclopedias, Macfarquhar and Bell were inspired by the intellectual ferment of the Scottish Enlightenment and thought the time ripe for a new encyclopedia "compiled upon a new plan".
Chinese encyclopedia
Among printed encyclopedias, the earliest was the (1917) "The Encyclopaedia Sinica" compiled the English missionary Samuel Couling. The 1938 "Cihai" ("Sea of Words") is a general-purpose encyclopedic dictionary that covers many fields of knowledge. The Zhonghua Book Company published the first edition, and the Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House issued revised editions in 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009, making the "Cihai" a standard reference work for generations. The 1980-1993 "Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu" or "Encyclopedia of China" is the first comprehensive (74 volume) Chinese encyclopedia. Compilation began in 1978, and the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House published individual volumes from 1980 through 1993. There is a 2009 concise second edition, as well as CD-ROM and online versions. The (1981–83) "Zhonghua Baike Quanshu" or "Chinese Encyclopedia" is a 10-volume comprehensive reference work published by the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. An online version is also available. The 1985–91 Chinese-language edition "Concise Encyclopædia Britannica" or "Jianming Buliedian Baike Quanshu" is an 11-volume translation based on the Micropædia portion of the 1987 15th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica".
History of encyclopedias
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. 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.
Elkan Harrison Powell
Powell was a vice president at Sears Roebuck in 1932, when the publisher of the "Britannica", Benjamin J. Cox, resigned. Powell quickly analyzed the factors affecting the profitability of the "Britannica" and hit upon the continuous revision policy in 1933. New "Britannica"-branded products such as the 12-volume children's encyclopedia, "Britannica Junior", appeared only a year later.
Franklin Henry Hooper
Horace Hooper and Walter Jackson bought the "Encyclopædia Britannica" in 1901, holding it until 1920. Franklin Hooper was already an editor there, having joined the staff in 1899. During his tenure, five editions of the encyclopedia were published — the 10th in 1902-03; the highly regarded 11th in 1910-11; the 12th in 1922; the 13th in 1926; and the 14th in 1929. He was listed together with James Louis Garvin as one of the two editors of the 14th edition. Franklin became editor-in-chief in 1932.
Encyclopædia Britannica
When Hooper fell into financial difficulties, the "Britannica" was managed by Sears Roebuck for 18 years (1920–1923, 1928–1943). In 1932, the vice-president of Sears, Elkan Harrison Powell, assumed presidency of the "Britannica"; in 1936, he began the policy of continuous revision. This was a departure from earlier practice, in which the articles were not changed until a new edition was produced, at roughly 25-year intervals, some articles unchanged from earlier editions. Powell developed new educational products that built upon the "Britannica"s reputation.
Robert McHenry
McHenry believes that Britannica failed to exploit its early advantages in the market for electronic encyclopedias. Britannica had, for example, published the first multimedia encyclopedia ("Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia") as early as 1989, but did not launch "Britannica CD" until 1994, one year after Microsoft launched their "Encarta" encyclopedia. McHenry believes these failures were due to a reluctance amongst senior management to fully embrace new technology, caused largely by the overriding influence of the sales staff and management. The sales personnel earned commissions from door-to-door selling of the print encyclopedias, which McHenry believes led to decisions about the distribution and pricing of the electronic products, being driven by the desires of the sales personnel, rather than market conditions and customer expectations.
Compton's Encyclopedia
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. initially owned "Compton's Encyclopedia" from 1961 to 1993, and later reacquired it in 2002. Britannica had sold its Compton's interests to the Tribune Company in 1993, and for a time "Compton's Encyclopedia" was a product of The Learning Company, which purchased Brøderbund in 1998. In March 2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. "acquired an exclusive license to publish and distribute "Compton's Encyclopedia" in print and CD-ROM from Broderbund LLC and Success Publishing Group".
Britannica's 1989 "Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia" was the first "multimedia" CD-ROM encyclopedia. It won the 1991 Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Award for Best Education Program.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Nearly doubling the scope of the 2nd edition, Macfarquhar's encyclopedic vision was finally realized. Recruited by Gleig, several illustrious authorities contributed to this edition, such as Dr. Thomas Thomson, who introduced modern chemical nomenclature in a chart appended to the Chemistry article, and would go on to re-write that article in the 1801 supplement (see below), and John Robison, Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who wrote several well-regarded articles on sciences then called natural philosophy. The third edition established the foundation of the "Britannica" as an important and definitive reference work for much of the next century. This edition was also enormously profitable, yielding 42,000 pounds sterling profit on the sale of roughly 10,000 copies. The 3rd edition began the tradition (continued to this day) of dedicating the "Britannica" to the reigning British monarch, then King George III; calling him "the Father of Your People, and enlightened Patron of Arts, Sciences and Literature", Gleig wished
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The University of Chicago declined the offer, viewing the mission of the university as not entirely consistent with a large commercial publishing house; however it continues even today to be involved in its production, offering editorial advice and allowing its name to be associated with the "Britannica". Thus, in 1943, the wealthy and powerful William Benton, a former U.S. senator and advertising executive, obtained exclusive control of the "Britannica", which he published until his death in 1973. His widow Helen Hemingway Benton continued to publish the "Britannica" until her own death in 1974. After their deaths, the Benton Foundation continued to manage the "Britannica" until it was sold to Jacqui Safra in 1996.
Encyclopedia Nipponica
When it was founded in 1922, Shogakukan specialized in study books and magazines for elementary school students. According to its websites, 日本百科大事典 (Nihon hyakka daijiten) published in 1962 was the first encyclopedia from Shogakukan. Since then, Shogakukan has continuously published encyclopedias: 世界原色百科事典 (Sekai genshoku hyakka jiten) in 1965, 大日本百科事典ジャポニカ (Dainihon hyakka jiten japonica) in 1967, こども百科事典 (Kodomo hyakka jiten) in 1970, and 万有百科大事典 (Banyu hyakka daijiten) in 1972 among others. Shogakukan's "Encyclopedia Nipponica" has been one of the major Japanese encyclopedias. The other major encyclopedia, "Heibonsha World Encyclopedia" (世界大百科事典, Sekai daihyakka jiten), was published from Heibonsha. Since the foundation in 1914, Heibonsha has put emphasis on encyclopedias. Currently, "World Encyclopedia" holds three editions: "World Encyclopedia", "World Encyclopedia" on DVD, and the online edition called "Netto de hyakka".
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" explicitly positioned itself as a conservative publication in reaction to the radical French "Encyclopédie" of Diderot published between 1751 and 1766. In the royal dedication penned on 10 December 1800, Dr. Gleig elaborated on the editorial purpose of the "Britannica"
Robert McHenry
McHenry played a key role in the launch in 1994 of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" in two electronic forms; a CD-ROM version, "Britannica CD", and an Internet version, "Britannica Online", which was the first Internet-based encyclopedia.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" was dedicated to the reigning British monarch from 1788 to 1901 and then, upon its sale to an American partnership, to the British monarch and the President of the United States. Thus, the 11th edition is "dedicated by Permission to His Majesty George the Fifth, King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, and to William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America." The order of the dedications has changed with the relative power of the United States and Britain, and with relative sales; the 1954 version of the 14th edition is "Dedicated by Permission to the Heads of the Two English-Speaking Peoples, Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second." Consistent with this tradition, the 2007 version of the current 15th edition was "dedicated by permission to the current President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II," while the 2010 version of the current 15th edition is "dedicated by permission to Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II."
Biographia Britannica
Biographia Britannica was a multi-volume biographical compendium, "the most ambitious attempt in the latter half of the eighteenth century to document the lives of notable British men and women". The first edition, edited by William Oldys (1696–1761) until his death, appeared in 6 volumes (the sixth in two parts, the second sometimes catalogued as volume 7) between 1747 and 1766. The editor of the two parts of volume 6 (1763 & 1766) is unknown. Five volumes of an incomplete second edition, edited by Andrew Kippis (1725–1795) with the assistance of Joseph Towers (1737–1799), appeared between 1778 and 1793, and cover names commencing Aa through to Fa; a sixth volume was prepared for publication, and may have been published, but now seems to be lost.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Needing an editor, the two chose a 28-year-old scholar named William Smellie who was offered 200 pounds sterling to produce the encyclopedia in 100 parts (called "numbers" and equivalent to thick pamphlets), which were later bound into three volumes. The first number appeared on 10 December 1768 in Edinburgh, priced sixpence or 8 pence on finer paper. The "Britannica" was published under the pseudonym "A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland", possibly referring to the many gentlemen who had bought subscriptions. By releasing the numbers in weekly instalments, the "Britannica" was completed in 1771, having 2,391 pages. The numbers were bound in three equally sized volumes covering A–B, C–L, and M–Z; an estimated 3,000 sets were eventually sold, priced at 12 pounds sterling apiece.
The 1st edition also featured 160 copperplate illustrations engraved by Bell. Three of the engravings in the section on midwifery, depicting childbirth in clinical detail, were sufficiently shocking to prompt some readers to tear those engravings out of the volume.
Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition
The two volumes of the Supplement contain 50 copperplates, none of which were produced by Bell. Bonar retained sole ownership of the supplement's copyright. In the creation of the 4th edition of Britannica, which Bell started in 1800, none of the work from the supplements could be used, as Bell did not have the copyright, and Bonar wanted too much money for his liking. This event caused a feud between Bonar and Bell which was never resolved during Bell's lifetime. Bell died in 1809, and the 4th edition was completed the next year. Upon Bell's death, one of Britannica's major distributors, Archibald Constable, bought the encyclopedia, and also obtained Bonar's copyright by making him part owner of Britannica.
Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber)
The original Encyclopædia Americana was published in the United States beginning in the late 1820s and continued with new editions and supplements into the 1850s. Other than the name, it had no connection with the "Encyclopedia Americana" that began publishing in 1902 or the Americanized version of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" published in the 1880s.
Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition
Two volumes were produced in 1801 to supplement the Third edition. A second edition of the two volumes, "with improvements", was printed in 1803. Both versions were printed by John Brown, Anchor Close, Edinburgh. In both versions, the articles are ordered alphabetically and the volumes contain about 800 pages each. The 1803 edition has A-I in volume 1 and I-Z in volume 2. A new article on Chemistry, 190 pages in length, written by Thomas Thomson of Edinburgh, is meant to completely replace the 261-page article in the main encyclopedia, written by James Tytler. Much new information about oxygen, combustion, and disproof of the phlogiston theory had been discovered since Tytler's day, and are explained in the supplements. A new and quickly growing list of chemical elements and their compounds was replacing the former system, which contained only the elements earth, air, water, and fire. Thomson also wrote new articles on Mineralogy, Combustion, and a 90-page article named Substances, all pertaining to Chemistry. Thomson went on to write the article Chemistry for the 7th edition of "Britannica", 40 years later.
History of encyclopedias
The first major Finnish encyclopedia was "Tietosanakirja" (11 volumes, 1909–1922). Inspired by the minority language example of "Norsk Allkunnebok", a Swedish-language encyclopedia of Finland was initiated in 1969 and eventually published as "Uppslagsverket Finland" (3 volumes, 1982–1985; 2nd edition in 5 volumes, 2003–2007). With such a small market, the sales revenue only covered the printing cost, while editors were paid by endowments. In 2009 the entire contents was made available online, free of charge.
Otto's encyclopedia
Otto's encyclopedia ( or ), published at the turn of the 20th century, is the largest encyclopedia written in the Czech language. For its scope and the quality of the writing, it is comparable to the greatest world encyclopedias of its time, such as "Encyclopædia Britannica".
Encyclopædia Britannica
Throughout history, the "Britannica" has had two aims: to be an excellent reference book, and to provide educational material. In 1974, the 15th edition adopted a third goal: to systematize all human knowledge. The history of the "Britannica" can be divided into five eras, punctuated by changes in management, or re-organization of the dictionary.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Starting in 1936, a new printing of the encyclopaedia was published each year, incorporating the latest changes and updates. In 1938, the first edition of the "Britannica Book of the Year" appeared. This annual supplement is still published today.
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
Hooper sold the rights to Sears Roebuck of Chicago in 1920, completing the "Britannica"'s transition to becoming a substantially American publication. In 1922, an additional three volumes (also edited by Hugh Chisholm), were published, covering the events of the intervening years, including World War I. These, together with a reprint of the eleventh edition, formed the twelfth edition of the work. A similar thirteenth edition, consisting of three volumes plus a reprint of the twelfth edition, was published in 1926, so the twelfth and thirteenth editions were closely related to the eleventh edition and shared much of the same content. However, it became increasingly apparent that a more thorough update of the work was required.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" of this period was primarily a Scottish enterprise, and it is one of the most enduring legacies of the Scottish Enlightenment. In this era, the "Britannica" moved from being a three-volume set (1st edition) compiled by one young editor—William Smellie—to a 20-volume set written by numerous authorities. Several other encyclopaedias competed throughout this period, among them editions of Abraham Rees's "Cyclopædia" and Coleridge's "Encyclopædia Metropolitana" and David Brewster's "Edinburgh Encyclopædia".
William Smellie (encyclopedist)
At the age of 28, Smellie was hired by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell to edit the first edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica", which appeared in 100 weekly instalments ("numbers") from December 1768 to 1771. It was a masterful composition although, by Smellie's own admission, he borrowed liberally from many authors of his day, such as Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. Nevertheless, the first edition of the "Britannica" contained gross inaccuracies and fanciful speculations; for example, it states that excess use of tobacco could cause neurodegeneration, "drying up the brain to a little black lump consisting of mere membranes".
Encyclopedia Americana
A separate "Encyclopedia Americana" was published by J.M. Stoddart between 1883 and 1889, as a supplement to American reprintings of the 9th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica". It was four quarto volumes meant to "extend and complete the articles in "Britannica"". Stoddart's work, however, is not connected to the earlier work by Lieber.
Encyclopædia Britannica
In the fourth era (1974–94), the "Britannica" introduced its 15th edition, which was re-organized into three parts: the , the , and the . Under Mortimer J. Adler (member of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and its chair from 1974; director of editorial planning for the 15th edition of "Britannica" from 1965), the "Britannica" sought not only to be a good reference work and educational tool, but to systematize all human knowledge. The absence of a separate index and the grouping of articles into parallel encyclopaedias (the and ) provoked a "firestorm of criticism" of the initial 15th edition. In response, the 15th edition was completely re-organized and indexed for a re-release in 1985. This second version of the 15th edition continued to be published and revised until the 2010 print version. The official title of the 15th edition is the "New Encyclopædia Britannica", although it has also been promoted as "Britannica 3".
Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition
The key idea that set the "Britannica" apart was to group related topics together into longer essays, that were then organized alphabetically. Previous English encyclopedias had generally listed related terms separately in their alphabetical order, rather like a modern technical dictionary, an approach that the "Britannica's"' management derided as "dismembering the sciences". Although anticipated by Dennis de Coetlogon, the idea for this "new plan" is generally ascribed to Colin Macfarquhar, although Smellie claimed it as his own invention.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Production of the 9th edition was overseen by Thomas Spencer Baynes, the first English-born editor-in-chief. Dubbed the "Scholar's Edition", the 9th edition is the most scholarly of all "Britannicas". After 1880, Baynes was assisted by William Robertson Smith. No biographies of living persons were included. James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Huxley were special advisors on science. However, by the close of the 19th century, the 9th edition was outdated, and the "Britannica" faced financial difficulties.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Sales figures for the 11th edition were comparable to those of the 9th, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies including the unlicensed sets. Unlike the 9th, however, the 11th edition was not infringed, all sets being printed legitimately by Britannica. It can be seen that the 9th and 11th editions were massively better-sellers than previous editions. This is mainly due to the increase in population of, and sales in, the United States, which were mere colonies with low population when Britannica started out in 1768.
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The "Encyclopædia Britannica" Eleventh Edition (1910–11) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica". It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time. This edition of the encyclopedia, containing 40,000 entries, is now in the public domain, and many of its articles have been used as a basis for articles in Wikipedia. However, the outdated nature of some of its content makes its use as a source for modern scholarship problematic. Some articles have special value and interest to modern scholars as cultural artifacts of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Writing about the 3rd edition (1788–1797), "Britannica"s chief editor George Gleig observed that "perfection seems to be incompatible with the nature of works constructed on such a plan, and embracing such a variety of subjects." In March 2006, the "Britannica" wrote, "we in no way mean to imply that "Britannica" is error-free; we have never made such a claim." The sentiment is expressed by its original editor, William Smellie:
Compton's Encyclopedia
Compton's Encyclopedia and Fact-Index is a home and school encyclopedia first published in 1922 as Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia. The word "Pictured" was removed from the title with the 1968 edition. The encyclopedia is now advertised as "Compton's by Britannica".
British Encyclopaedia
The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, claimed by its publishers to be a work ""Comprising an accurate and popular view of the present improved state of human knowledge"", was published at London in 1809 in six octavo volumes and around 150 plates.
The Know-It-All
A.J. Jacobs was not the first to read the entire "Britannica". The earliest recorded example was Fath Ali, who upon becoming the Shah of Persia in 1797, was given a gift of the 3rd edition of the "Britannica". After reading all of its 18 volumes, the Shah extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the "Encyclopædia Britannica"". Roughly a century later, Amos Urban Shirk, an American businessman, read the entire 23-volume "1911 Encyclopædia Britannica" over a period of four years. He then went on to read the entire 14th edition, spending on average three hours per night.
Encyclopædia Britannica
During the second era (7th–9th editions, 1827–1901), the "Britannica" was managed by the Edinburgh publishing firm A & C Black. Although some contributors were again recruited through friendships of the chief editors, notably Macvey Napier, others were attracted by the "Britannica's" reputation. The contributors often came from other countries and included the world's most respected authorities in their fields. A general index of all articles was included for the first time in the 7th edition, a practice maintained until 1974.
Encyclopædia Perthensis
The "Encyclopædia" was issued in weekly installments from 1796 to 1806, then republished in a 23 volume set in 1806. The first edition had the subtitle "Universal dictionary of knowledge, collected from every source and intended to supersede the use of all other English books of reference."
Webster's Dictionary
Since the 1961 publication of the "Third", Merriam-Webster has reprinted the main text of the dictionary with only minor corrections. To add new words, they created an "Addenda Section" in 1966, included in the front matter, which was expanded in 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1993, and 2002. However, the rate of additions was much slower than it had been throughout the previous hundred years. Following the purchase of Merriam-Webster by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1964, a three-volume version was issued for many years as a supplement to the encyclopedia. At the end of volume three, this edition included the "Britannica World Language Dictionary", 474 pages of translations between English and French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish. A CD-ROM version of the complete text, with thousands of additional new words and definitions from the "addenda", was published by Merriam-Webster in 2000, and is often packaged with the print edition. The third edition was published in 2000 on Merriam-Webster's website as a subscription service.
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.
Encyclopædia Britannica
On 20 February 2007, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced that it was working with mobile phone search company AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopaedia. Users will be able to send a question via text message, and AskMeNow will search "Britannica" 28,000-article concise encyclopaedia to return an answer to the query. Daily topical features sent directly to users' mobile phones are also planned.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The passage of a few years led to a better perspective on that era. In 1926, the "Britannica" released three new volumes covering the history of 1910–1926, which were intended to supplant those of the twelfth edition. Again taken together with the eleventh edition, the new volumes became known as the thirteenth edition, which maintained the "Britannica's" tradition of illustrious contributors: Harry Houdini, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, Henry Ford, Leon Trotsky, Ferdinand Foch, Gustav Stresemann, Thomas G. Masaryk and Elihu Root.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The 11th edition was published in 1910-1911.
Bicentennial of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The first two pamphlets ("numbers") of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" were issued in December 1768, being sold from the printing office of its originator, Colin Macfarquhar, in Nicholson Street in Edinburgh. In 1968, several celebrations of the "Britannica's" bicentennial were held, and the three volumes of the 1st edition were reprinted in facsimile.
Encyclopedia Lituanica
Encyclopedia Lituanica (likely named after "Encyclopædia Britannica" or "Encyclopedia Americana") is a six-volume (about 3600-page) English language encyclopedia about Lithuania and Lithuania-related topics. It was published between 1970 and 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts by Lithuanian emigrants who had escaped Soviet occupation at the end of World War II. To this day, it remains the only such comprehensive work on Lithuania in the English language.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The Eighth edition is a thorough revision, even more so than the Seventh. Some long articles were carried over from the 7th edition, but most were completely re-written, and new articles by illustrious contributors were added. In all, there were 344 contributors, including Lord Macaulay, Charles Kingsley, Robert Chambers, the Rev. Charles Merivale, Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Baron Robert Bunsen, Sir John Herschel, Professors Richard Owen, John Stuart Blackie and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Photography is listed for the first time. This edition also featured the first American contributor to the "Britannica", Edward Everett, who wrote a 40,000-word hagiographic biography of George Washington
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The 8th edition was published from 1853 to 1860, with title pages for each volume dated the year that volume was printed. It contained 21 numbered volumes, with 17,957 pages and 402 plates. The index, published in 1861, was 239 pages, and was either bound alone as an unnumbered 22nd volume, or was bound together with volume I, the dissertations volume. Four of these dissertations were carried over from the 7th edition, and two were new to the 8th. The five included in volume 1 of the 8th (1853) were authored by Dugald Stewart, James Mackintosh, Richard Whately, John Playfair, and John Leslie, in that order, with the Whately work being a new one. A sixth dissertation, by J.D. Forbes, was issued in 1856, in a separate quarto volume, "gratis, along with Vol. XII".
Thomas Dobson (printer)
The 18-volume third edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" began to be published in 1788 in Scotland, and was well received. It was by far the best edition of the "Britannica" to date, and remained so until roughly the 7th edition. (See History of the Encyclopædia Britannica for more details.) The third edition was completed in 1797, with a two-volume supplement added in 1801.
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
Originally, Hooper bought the rights to the 25-volume 9th edition and persuaded the British newspaper "The Times" to issue its reprint, with eleven additional volumes (35 volumes total) as the tenth edition, which was published in 1902. Hooper's association with "The Times" ceased in 1909, and he negotiated with the Cambridge University Press to publish the 29-volume eleventh edition. Though it is generally perceived as a quintessentially British work, the eleventh edition had substantial American influences, not only in the increased amount of American and Canadian content, but also in the efforts made to make it more popular. American marketing methods also assisted sales. Some 14% of the contributors (214 of 1507) were from North America, and a New York office was established to coordinate their work.
History of Wikipedia
Advances in information technology in the late 20th century led to changes in the form of encyclopedias. While previous encyclopedias, notably the "Encyclopædia Britannica", were book-based, Microsoft's Encarta, published in 1993, was available on CD-ROM and hyperlinked. The development of the World Wide Web led to many attempts to develop internet encyclopedia projects. An early proposal for an online encyclopedia was Interpedia in 1993 by Rick Gates; this project died before generating any encyclopedic content. Free software proponent Richard Stallman described the usefulness of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" in 1999. His published document "aims to lay out what the free encyclopedia needs to do, what sort of freedoms it needs to give the public, and how we can get started on developing it." On Wednesday 17 January 2001, two days after the founding of Wikipedia, the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) GNUPedia project went online, competing with Nupedia, but today the FSF encourages people "to visit and contribute to [Wikipedia]".
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The 1911 edition is no longer restricted by copyright, and it is therefore available in several more modern forms. While it may once have been a reliable description of the consensus of its time, many modern readers find fault with the "Encyclopedia" for several major errors, ethnocentric remarks, and other issues:The eleventh edition of "Encyclopædia Britannica" has become a commonly quoted source, both because of the reputation of the "Britannica" and because it is now in the public domain and has been made available on the Internet. It has been used as a source by many modern projects, including Wikipedia and the "Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia".
Encyclopædia Britannica
The has been compared with other print encyclopaedias, both qualitatively and quantitatively. A well-known comparison is that of Kenneth Kister, who gave a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the "Britannica" with two comparable encyclopaedias, "Collier's Encyclopedia" and the "Encyclopedia Americana". For the quantitative analysis, ten articles were selected at random—circumcision, Charles Drew, Galileo, Philip Glass, heart disease, IQ, panda bear, sexual harassment, Shroud of Turin and Uzbekistan—and letter grades of A–D or F were awarded in four categories: coverage, accuracy, clarity, and recency. In all four categories and for all three encyclopaedias, the four average grades fell between B− and B+, chiefly because none of the encyclopaedias had an article on sexual harassment in 1994. In the accuracy category, the "Britannica" received one "D" and seven "A"s, "Encyclopedia Americana" received eight "A"s, and "Collier's" received one "D" and seven "A"s; thus, "Britannica" received an average score of 92% for accuracy to "Americana"s 95% and "Collier's" 92%. In the timeliness category, "Britannica" averaged an 86% to "Americana"'s 90% and "Collier's" 85%.
Encyclopædia Britannica
"My First Britannica" is aimed at children ages six to 12, and the "Britannica Discovery Library" is for children aged three to six (issued 1974 to 1991).
Colin Macfarquhar
Colin Macfarquhar (1744 or 1745? – 2 April 1793 or May 1793, Edinburgh?, Scotland) was a Scottish bookseller and printer who is most known for co-founding "Encyclopædia Britannica" with Andrew Bell, first published in December 1768. The dates of his birth and death remain uncertain, even to Britannica itself.
History of encyclopedias
"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.
Encyclopædia Britannica
There have been and are several abridged "Britannica" encyclopaedias. The single-volume "Britannica Concise Encyclopædia" has 28,000 short articles condensing the larger 32-volume "Britannica"; there are authorized translations in languages such as Chinese and Vietnamese. "Compton's by Britannica", first published in 2007, incorporating the former "Compton's Encyclopedia", is aimed at 10- to 17-year-olds and consists of 26 volumes and 11,000 pages.
Thomas Spencer Baynes
In 1873, he was appointed to superintend the ninth edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica", in which, after 1880, he was assisted by William Robertson Smith. 
Baynes was the first English-born editor of the "Britannica"; all earlier editors were Scottish.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Title pages for all volumes were printed in 1842 and delivered with the completed set. An index to the entire set was created that year as well, and was the first of its kind for Britannica. Being only 187 pages long, it did not warrant its own volume, and was sent to bookbinders with instructions to include it at the beginning of volume 1, the dissertations volume, which had been printed in 1829. This same arrangement would also be used for the 8th edition, but not the 9th.
Encyclopædia Edinensis
The Encyclopædia Edinensis was a six-volume general encyclopedia published in Edinburgh in 1827, and intended for a popular audience. It was edited by James Millar, who died just before it was complete.Work began on the "Encyclopædia" in 1816. Millar edited the fourth and parted of the fifth editions of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and had contributed extensively to both. His goal with the Edinensis was to create a more popular work. However, his use of a large quarto format, reminiscent of the "Britannica" hampered the project as duodecimal, miniature formats were then in vogue.
Encyclopedia
The beginnings of the modern idea of the general-purpose, widely distributed printed encyclopedia precede the 18th century encyclopedists. However, Chambers' "Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences" (1728), and the "Encyclopédie" of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond 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. Chambers, in 1728, followed the earlier lead of John Harris's "Lexicon Technicum" of 1704 and later editions (see also below); this work was by its title and content "A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves".
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Unfortunately, Constable went bankrupt on 19 January 1826 and the rights to the "Britannica" were sold on auction; they were eventually bought on 16 July 1828 for 6150 pounds sterling by a partnership of four men: Adam Black (a publisher), Alexander Wight (a banker), Abram Thomson (a bookbinder) and Thomas Allen, the proprietor of the "Caledonian Mercury". Not long after, Black bought out his partners and ownership of the "Britannica" passed to the Edinburgh publishing firm of A & C Black.
Encyclopædia Britannica Second Edition
The "Encyclopædia Britannica" Second Edition (1777–1784) is a 10-volume reference work, an edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica". It was developed during the encyclopaedia's earliest period as a two-man operation founded by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was sold unbound in subscription format over a period of 7 years. Most of the medical and scientific articles, as well as the minor articles, were written by James Tytler. All copperplates were created by Bell.
Vol 1. A 1778;
Vol 2. A-B 1778;
Vol 3. C 1778;
Vol 4. D-F 1779;
Vol 5. G-J 1780;
Vol 6. K-L 1780;
Vol 7. M-O 1781;
Vol 8. O-P 1781;
Vol 9. P-S 1782;
Vol 10. S-Z 1783, with a 204-page appendix, 1784.
Encyclopædia Britannica
First was Britannica Insights, a free, downloadable software extension to the Google Chrome browser that served up edited, fact-checked Britannica information with queries on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Its purpose, the company said, was to "provide trusted, verified information" in conjunction with search results that were thought to be increasingly unreliable in the era of misinformation and "fake news."
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The eleventh edition introduced a number of changes of the format of the "Britannica". It was the first to be published complete, instead of the previous method of volumes being released as they were ready. The print type was kept in galley proofs and subject to continual updating until publication. It was the first edition of "Britannica" to be issued with a comprehensive index volume in which was added a categorical index, where like topics were listed. It was the first not to include long treatise-length articles. Even though the overall length of the work was about the same as that of its predecessor, the number of articles had increased from 17,000 to 40,000. It was also the first edition of "Britannica" to include biographies of living people. Sixteen maps of the famous 9th edition of "Stielers Handatlas" were exclusively translated to English, converted to Imperial units, printed in Gotha, Germany by Justus Perthes and became part this edition. Later editions only included Perthes' great maps as low quality reproductions.
Scottish Enlightenment
Representative of the far-reaching impact of the Scottish Enlightenment was the new "Encyclopædia Britannica", which was designed in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarquhar, Andrew Bell and others. It was first published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, with 2,659 pages and 160 engravings, and quickly became a standard reference work in the English-speaking world. The fourth edition (1810) ran to 16,000 pages in 20 volumes. The "Encyclopaedia" continued to be published in Edinburgh until 1898, when it was sold to an American publisher.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The 12th edition was published in 1921-1922, and the 13th edition was published in 1926.
Encyclopedia of British Columbia
The Encyclopedia of British Columbia is an encyclopedia first published in 1999. It was published by Harbour Publishing, and edited by Daniel Francis. It contained some 4,000 articles and 1,000 pictures about the Canadian province of British Columbia. The hardcover edition came with a CD-ROM version of the book; ten years in the making, it has been described as "a labour of love" by "The Globe and Mail". A best seller with 30,000 copies in print, now it is only available online for a fee, and is known as KnowBC. There it continues to be updated and expanded by Daniel Francis. The KnowBC portal includes access to many other Harbour Publishing publications.
Collier's Encyclopedia
Collier's Encyclopedia (full title: Collier's Encyclopedia with Bibliography and Index) was a United States-based general encyclopedia published by Crowell, Collier and Macmillan. Self-described in its preface as "a scholarly, systematic, continuously revised summary of the knowledge that is most significant to mankind", it was long considered one of the three major contemporary English-language general encyclopedias, together with "Encyclopedia Americana" and "Encyclopædia Britannica": the three were sometimes collectively called "the ABCs".
Encyclopedia Americana
The first began publishing in the 1820s by the German exile Francis Lieber. The 13 volumes of the first edition were completed in 1833, and other editions and printings followed in 1835, 1836, 1847-1848, 1849 and 1858. Lieber's work was based upon and was in no small part a translation of the 7th edition of the well established "Konversations-Lexikon" of Brockhaus. Some material from this set was carried over into the modern version, as well as the Brockhaus short article method.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopaedia"), formerly published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It was written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition.
Thomas Dobson (printer)
In this era, enterprising American printers were matching their British counterparts in quality and quantity, and severely undercutting them in price as well. A successful master printer, Dobson objected to a perceived British bias in the Britannica and resolved to re-edit the Britannica to be more fair. He completed his "Encyclopedia" in April 1798, a year after the original. He also added a supplement of three volumes in 1803. Dobson's encyclopædia had 16,650 pages with 595 engraved copperplates; both numbers are slightly greater than their British counterparts. In support of Dobson's patriotic initiative, then-President George Washington subscribed to two sets of his first American encyclopædia, one of which now rests with most of the rest of George Washington's personal library in the Boston Athenæum.
Encyclopædia Britannica
In the fifth era (1994–present), digital versions have been developed and released on optical media and online. In 1996, the "Britannica" was bought by Jacqui Safra at well below its estimated value, owing to the company's financial difficulties. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. split in 1999. One part retained the company name and developed the print version, and the other, Britannica.com Inc., developed digital versions. Since 2001, the two companies have shared a CEO, Ilan Yeshua, who has continued Powell's strategy of introducing new products with the "Britannica" name. In March 2012, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that it would not produce any new print editions of the encyclopaedia, with the 2010 15th edition being the last. The company will focus only on the online edition and other educational tools.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Currently, Britannica co-operates with Taiwan companies (遠流/智慧藏學習科技公司) to provide a Traditional Chinese-English bilingual version encyclopedia on internet according to the 2002 edition. It is the first bilingual product of Britannica.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The first edition was reprinted in London, with slight variants on the title page and a different preface, by Edward and Charles Dilly in 1773 and by John Donaldson in 1775. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the 1st edition, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. published a facsimile of the 1st edition, even including "age spots" on the paper. This has been periodically reprinted and is still part of Britannica's product line.
Japanese encyclopedias
After World War II, Heibonsha responded to Japan's new internationalization by publishing the "Sekai Dai-Hyakka Jiten" (, the "Great World Encyclopedia") in 32 volumes, between 1955 and 1959. Shogakukan then published the 19-volume "Encyclopedia Japonica", Japan's first full-color reference work, between 1967 and 1972. Between 1970 and 1974, Gakushu Kenkyusha published a 21-volume encyclopedia, the "Gurando Gendai Hyakka Jiten" (, the "Great Modern Encyclopedia"). In 1974 and 1975, a 30-volume Japanese version of the "Encyclopædia Britannica", the "Buritanica Kokusai Hyakka Jiten" (, the "Britannica International Encyclopedia"), was also published in Japan. In 1984, Heibonsha returned with a 16-volume compilation, the "Dai-Hyakka Jiten" (, the "Great Encyclopedia"), and Shogakukan began publishing a 25-volume encyclopedia, the "Nihon Dai-Hyakka Zensho" (, literally, the "Japan Comprehensive Encyclopedia," but officially known by the English title, "Encyclopedia Nipponica") the same year, finishing in 1989. A second edition was published in 1994. Various children's encyclopedias were also published in the 1950s and 1960s.
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States and designed to serve the Roman Catholic Church. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index volume in 1914 and later supplementary volumes. It was designed "to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine".
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
William Benton published the Britannica from 1943 until his death in 1973. After the death of his widow Helen Benton in 1974, the Benton Foundation continued to manage the Britannica until it was sold to Jacqui Safra in 1996.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Encyclopædia Britannica" has been published continuously since 1768, appearing in fifteen official editions. Several editions have been amended with multi-volume "supplements" (3rd, 5th/6th), consisted of previous editions with added supplements (10th, and 12th/13th) or undergone drastic re-organizations (15th). In recent years, digital versions of the "Britannica" have been developed, both online and on optical media. Since the early 1930s, the "Britannica" has developed several "spin-off" products to leverage its reputation as a reliable reference work and educational tool.
Encyclopædia Britannica
Since the early 1990s, the "Britannica" has faced new challenges from digital information sources. The Internet, facilitated by the development of search engines, has grown into a common source of information for many people, and provides easy access to reliable original sources and expert opinions, thanks in part to initiatives such as Google Books, MIT's release of its educational materials and the open PubMed Central library of the National Library of Medicine. In general, the Internet tends to provide more current coverage than print media, due to the ease with which material on the Internet can be updated. In rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, politics, culture and modern history, the "Britannica" has struggled to stay up-to-date, a problem first analysed systematically by its former editor Walter Yust. Eventually, the "Britannica" turned to focus more on its online edition.
Encyclopædia Britannica Films
Benton changed the name over to Encyclopædia Britannica Films because he had once heard a school child call the films "burpy" on account of the rhyming. The first titles to sport the new name were released in November 1943. Later on, titles sported a simplified "EB Films" logo. After expanding the facilities with $1.5 million invested, William Benton temporarily left to become Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs under President Harry Truman, then as a senator and arch adversary of Joseph McCarthy before returning in 1952. With Beardsley Ruml mostly in charge, a prestigious board of directors was set up. Operating as president for a time was the future Ford Fund for Adult Education head Cyril Scott Fletcher.
The British Encyclopedia
The British Encyclopaedia and The British Dictionary are a 12 volume illustrated general knowledge encyclopaedia and dictionary published by Odhams Press Ltd in 1933. Volumes one to ten form the "Encyclopaedia" while the final two together make up the Dictionary.
Bicentennial of the Encyclopædia Britannica
On the occasion of its 200th anniversary, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. published a facsimile of the 1st edition, even including "age spots" on the paper. This has been periodically reprinted and is still part of Britannica's product line.
Bicentennial of the Encyclopædia Britannica
From 9 April 1968 through 31 May 1968, the Newberry Library in Chicago offered an exhibit celebrating all encyclopedias, but most particularly the "Britannica". The exhibit was accompanied by a book by James M. Wells, who wrote an overview essay dated 9 January 1968.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The 15th edition had a three-part structure: a 12-volume of short articles (generally fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume of long articles (two to 310 pages), and a single volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge. The was meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the ; readers are advised to study the outline to understand a subject's context and to find more detailed articles. Over 70 years, the size of the "Britannica" has remained steady, with about 40 million words on half a million topics. Though published in the United States since 1901, the "Britannica" has for the most part maintained British English spelling.
Encyclopedia
In 2001, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia, a multilingual, open-source, free online encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Unlike commercial online encyclopedias such as Britannica Online, which are written by experts, Wikipedia is collaboratively edited by volunteers. As of 02 2022, there are articles in the English Wikipedia. There are 287 different editions of Wikipedia. As of February 2014, it had 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month. Wikipedia has more than 25 million accounts, out of which there were over 118,000 active editors globally, as of August 2015. A study by "Nature" in 2005 found that Wikipedia's science articles were roughly comparable in accuracy to those of "Encyclopædia Britannica", containing the same number of serious errors and about 1/3 more minor factual inaccuracies, but Wikipedia's writing tended to be confusing and less readable. Encyclopædia Britannica denied the study's conclusions, deeming the study fatally flawed.
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The initials of the encyclopedia's contributors appear at the end of selected articles or at the end of a section in the case of longer articles, such as that on China, and a key is given in each volume to these initials. Some articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time, such as Edmund Gosse, J. B. Bury, Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Muir, Peter Kropotkin, T. H. Huxley, James Hopwood Jeans and William Michael Rossetti. Among the then lesser-known contributors were some who would later become distinguished, such as Ernest Rutherford and Bertrand Russell. Many articles were carried over from the 9th edition, some with minimal updating. Some of the book-length articles were divided into smaller parts for easier reference, yet others much abridged. The best-known authors generally contributed only a single article or part of an article. Most of the work was done by journalists, British Museum scholars and other scholars. The 1911 edition was the first edition of the encyclopædia to include more than just a handful of female contributors, with 34 women contributing articles to the edition.
Encyclopædia Britannica
In 1943, Sears donated the to the University of Chicago. William Benton, then a vice president of the University, provided the working capital for its operation. The stock was divided between Benton and the University, with the University holding an option on the stock. Benton became Chairman of the Board and managed the "Britannica" until his death in 1973. Benton set up the Benton Foundation, which managed the "Britannica" until 1996. In 1968, near the end of this era, the "Britannica" celebrated its bicentennial.
Dobson's Encyclopædia
In this era, enterprising American printers were matching their British counterparts in quality and quantity, and severely undercutting them in price. A successful master printer, Dobson objected to a British bias he perceived in the Britannica, and resolved to re-edit the "Britannica" accordingly. He completed his Encyclopædia in April 1798, a year after the original. It had 16,650 pages, with 595 engraved copperplates, slightly more than the "Britannica". In support of Dobson's patriotic initiative, President George Washington subscribed to two sets, one of which now is kept with most of the rest of George Washington's personal library in the Boston Athenæum.
Encyclopædia Britannica
The "Britannica" has been issued in 15 editions, with multi-volume supplements to the 3rd and 4th editions (see the Table below). The 5th and 6th editions were reprints of the 4th, the 10th edition was only a supplement to the 9th, just as the 12th and 13th editions were supplements to the 11th. The 15th underwent massive re-organization in 1985, but the updated, current version is still known as the 15th. The 14th and 15th editions were edited every year throughout their runs, so that later printings of each were entirely different from early ones.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The company was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 18th century, in the atmosphere of the Scottish Enlightenment. A printer, Colin Macfarquhar, and an engraver, Andrew Bell, formed a partnership to create a new book that would embody the new spirit of scholarship. William Smellie was engaged to edit the original three-volume work, published one volume at a time beginning in 1768.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Under Powell's leadership, the "Britannica" began to capitalize on its reputation by aggressively developing "spin-offs", such as the 12-volume "Britannica Junior" for children (published 1934, and revised to 15 volumes in 1947), the historical timeline "The March of Man" (published 1935, and edited by Albert Bushwell Hart, Isaac J. Cox and Lawrence H. Dawson), the "Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas" (published 1942, and prepared by G. Donald Hudson) and "10 Eventful Years", a summary of the national and international events surrounding World War II (1937–1946).
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The third edition was published from 1788 to 1797 in 300 weekly numbers (1 shilling apiece); these numbers were collected and sold unbound in 30 parts (10 shilling, sixpence each), and finally in 1797 they were bound in 18 volumes with 14,579 pages and 542 plates, and given title pages dated 1797 for all volumes. Macfarquhar again edited this edition up to "Mysteries" but died in 1793 (aged 48) of "mental exhaustion"; his work was taken over by George Gleig, later Bishop Gleig of Brechin (consecrated 30 October 1808). James Tytler again contributed heavily to the authorship, up to the letter M. Andrew Bell, Macfarquhar's partner, bought the rights to the "Britannica" from Macfarquhar's heirs.
Encyclopedic dictionary
The 18th-century encyclopedists, in turn, dramatically expanded the depth and, in some cases, substantially revised the organization of the encyclopedic dictionary to create the early major encyclopedias, the French "Encyclopédie" and later the British "Encyclopædia Britannica". However, such comprehensive works were costly and difficult to produce, and to keep current; and the detailed entries were not ideal for some reference uses. The first version of the German "Conversations-Lexikon" (1796–1808) was just 2,762 pages in six volumes, and while that work was later expanded, its format using numerous, less lengthy entries served as the principal model for many 19th-century encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries.
History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
The Supplement to the 5th edition was finished in 1824, and was sold with those sets, as well as with sets of the 6th edition, to be delivered at its completion. This supplement curiously was started during the production of the 5th edition but was not finished until after the 6th was completed. It also was sold as a unit for owners of the 4th edition, and became known as "Supplement to the 4th, 5th and 6th edition."