Encyclopaedia Britannica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is the oldest and largest English-language general encyclopaedia. Its articles are commonly considered accurate, reliable and well-written.
A product of the Scottish enlightenment, it was originally published in Edinburgh by Adam and Charles Black beginning in the 18th century. Unlike the French Encyclopedie, Britannica was an extremely conservative publication. Later editions were usually dedicated to the reigning monarch. The publication moved from Scotland to London and became associated with '\'The Times'' newspaper in the 1870s for its ninth and tenth editions. For the eleventh edition the publication became associated with Cambridge University. The trademark and publication rights were sold after the 11th edition to Sears Roebuck and it moved to Chicago where it has remained. The current publisher is Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature), which now owns a trademark on the word "Britannica".
As of 2004, the Encyclopaedia Britannica contains 75,000 articles with 44 million words. It is published in paper form (32 volumes, list price $1400), online (where brief summaries of articles can be viewed for free, and the full text is available for $10 per month or $60 per year for individual subscribers), on CD-ROM, and on DVD-ROM ($50).
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2 Sources 3 External links |
Edition history
| Edition | Published | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1768-1771 | 3 vol. | |
| 2nd | 1777-1784 | 10 vol. | |
| 3rd | 1788-1797, 1801 sup. | 18 vol. + 2 sup. | |
| 4th | 1801-1809 | 20 vol. | |
| 5th | 1815 | 20 vol. | |
| 6th | 1820-1823, 1815-1824 sup. | 20 vol. + 2 sup. | |
| 7th | 1830-1842 | 21 vol. | |
| 8th | 1852-1860 | 21 vol. + index | |
| 9th | 1870-1890 | 24 vol. + index. | (1) |
| 10th | 1902-1903 | 9th ed. + 9 sup. | (2) |
| 11th | 1910-1911 | 29 vol. | (3) |
| 12th | 1921-1922 | 11th ed. + 3 sup. | |
| 13th | 1926 | 11th ed.+ 6 sup. | |
| 14th | 1929-1973 | 24 vol. | |
| 15th | 1974-1984 | 28 vol. | |
| 16th | 1985- | 32 vol. |
(2) 10th ed. added a maps volume and an index volume
(3) 11th ed. Considered to be the classic edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica and available in the public domain (see 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The first CD-ROM edition was issued in 1994.
Sources
- 2. New York Times, February 8 1994. Part 1 of the business section in article reporting Britannica's announcement of their going online.
External links
- Encyclopaedia Britannica - official website
- Dusting off the Britannica - article from Business Week (1997)
- The Lies And Fallacies Of The Encyclopedia Britannica. How Powerful And Shameless Clerical Forces Castrated A Famous Work Of Reference by Joseph McCabe, c. 1947. Tract that claims to show systematic religious bias in the Britannica of the time.
- , a list of alleged mistakes in the Britannica and how they have been corrected in Wikipedia