Encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An encyclopedia (alternatively encyclopaedia) is a written compendium of human knowledge.
The term comes from the Greek words εγκύκλιος παιδεία, enkyklios paideia ("in a circle of instruction"). From εγκύκλιος, circuit shaped from κύκλος circuit and παιδεία, meaning instruction. See the Note on spelling below.
Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in many different fields (the English language Encyclopaedia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples), or they can specialize in a particular field (such as an encyclopedia of medicine or philosophy). There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics from a particular cultural or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedic works have been produced throughout much of human history, but the term encyclopedia was not used to refer to such works until the 16th century.
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2 Recent encyclopedias 3 Note on spelling 4 Notable encyclopedias and encyclopedists before 1700 5 External links |
Early encyclopedic works
Many writers of antiquity (such as Aristotle) attempted to write comprehensively about all human knowledge. Although John Harris is often credited with establishing the now-familiar encyclopedia format in 1704 with his Lexicon technicum the English physician Sir Thomas Browne specifically employed the word encyclopaedia to describe his compendium of refuted Vulgar Errors also known as Pseudodoxia Epidemica as early as 1646 (6th edition 1676) . The venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica had a modest beginning: from 1768 to 1771 three volumes were published. Perhaps the most famous early encyclopedia was the French Encyclopedie, edited by Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot and completed in 1772 (28 volumes, 71,818 articles, 2,885 illustrations)! The encyclopedia's hierarchical structure and evolving nature is particularly adaptable to a disk-based or on-line computer format, and all major printed encyclopedias had moved to this method of delivery by the end of the 20th century. Disk-based (typically CD-ROM format) publications have the advantage of being cheaply produced and extremely portable. Additionally, they can include media which is impossible in the printed format, such as animations, audio, and video. Hyperlinking between conceptually related items is also a significant benefit. On-line encyclopedias offer the additional advantage of being (potentially) dynamic: new information can be presented almost immediately, rather than waiting for the next release of a static format (as with a disk or paper based publication).
Information in a printed encyclopedia necessarily needs some form of hierarchical structure, and traditionally the method employed is to present the information ordered alphabetically by the article title. However with the advent of dynamic electronic formats the need to impose a pre-determined structure is unnecessary. Nonetheless, most electronic encyclopedias still offer a range of organisational strategies for the articles, such as by subject area or alphabetically.
Recent encyclopedias
More recently encyclopedias are also being published online.
Traditional encyclopedias are written by a number of employed text writers, usually people with an academic degree. This is not the case with Wikipedia, a project started in 2001 with the goal to create a free encyclopedia. Anyone can add or improve text, image and sounds. The contents are licensed under a free copyleft license (the GFDL). In 2004 the project has managed to produce over half a million articles in over 80 languages.
Note on spelling
None of the spellings, encyclopedia, encyclopaedia, or encyclopaedia is formally a misspelling. Historically, however, the latter two represent a very old spelling mistake. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the spelling with the ae or ae is "pseudo-Greek" and "an erroneous form (said to be a false reading) occurring in MSS. of Quintilian, Pliny, and Galen". The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the ae is not found in the original Greek enkyklios paideia for "encyclical education", described as "the circle of arts and sciences considered by the Greeks as essential to a liberal education".
The digraph ae or æ is a common rendering of the Greek diphthong ai, for example in other words from the root paid- such as "paediatrician." The Oxford English Dictionary asserts that the spelling with ae "has been preserved from becoming obsolete by the fact that many of the works so called have Latin titles, as Encyclopaedia Britannica". That particular encyclopedia includes the ligature form ae in its official name.
At least half the citations in the Oxford English Dictionary are for the so-called "incorrect" spelling. Neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor Webster's Third New International Dictionary states a preference, although the British Oxford English Dictionary puts the ae form first, and the American Webster's puts it second.
See list of encyclopedias for links to articles about specific encyclopedias.
See also: History of Science and Technology, Encyclopedist, Library and Information Science, Literature, Lexicography, dictionary, Reference work, book series Encyclopedia Brown
Notable encyclopedias and encyclopedists before 1700
- Suda
- Vincent of Beauvais
- Bartholomeus de Glanvilla (Bartholomew of England)
- John Henry Alsted
- Louis Moreri
- John Jacob Hoffman
- Pierre Bayle
- Vincenzo Coronelli
- Theodor Zwinger (1533-1588)
- Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82)
- Pliny the Elder
- St Isidore of Seville
- Hrabanus Maurus
- Yongle Encyclopedia
External links
- An enormous list of links to dictionaries and encyclopedias (last updated Nov. 1999)
- CNET's encyclopedia meta-search (includes Wikipedia)
- Encyclopedia Meta Search (search nearly 20 online encyclopedias at once, includes Wikipedia)