
The two men engaged William Smellie, a twenty-eight-year-old scholar at the University of Edinburgh, as general editor of the First Edition of their proposed Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was published and sold in one hundred parts between 17. The French Encyclopedic, first published in 1751, became the symbol of French radical humanism and generated international controversy for its allegedly blasphemous philosophy, but there is no evidence that the creators of the Encyclopaedia Britannica were directly inspired by the fame of the Encyclopedic (which in fact was begun as a translation of an earlier work by the Englishman Ephraim Chambers).Īndrew Bell, a prosperous engraver of Edinburgh, and the printer Colin Macfarquhar were convinced that the English-speaking world could use a reference work featuring substantial treatises on the arts, sciences, and trades combined alphabetically with shorter entries defining important terms and concepts.

The idea of uniting in a single publication all aspects of human knowledge went back at least to Roman times, but it was in the eighteenth century, the “age of enlightenment, ” that encyclopedias in the modern form began to appear in Europe. Macfarquhar, and sold by Colin Macfarquhar at his printing office in Nicolson-street, ” as the First Edition ’s title page informed its readers. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published between 17 “by a society of gentlemen in Scotland, printed in Edinburgh for A. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., is owned in turn by the William Benton Foundation of Illinois, a charitable foundation supporting programs in journalism and the media at the University of Chicago. and Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation, which markets audio-visual and electronic learning aids as well as books to schools and libraries. Today, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., markets the Britannica in more than 100 countries around the world and is also the parent company of Merriam-Webster, Inc., publishers of the famed dictionaries Compton ’s MultiMedia Publishing Group, Inc. The Britannica is respected throughout the world for its combination of breadth and thoroughness in its treatment of everything from the Punic Wars to quantum mechanics, and many of its articles, written by outstanding scholars in their respective fields, are masterpieces of compact erudition unlike anything else in the field of learning. Look up any word by simply right-clicking it and selecting the encyclopedia-then compare its article with similar articles from your other reference works.Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., has published one of the world ’s finest encyclopedias for more than two centuries. Articles link to Logos’ Bible Word Study, Bible Facts, Guides, Information Panel, and other features and research tools.


The massive content of the encyclopedia seamlessly integrates into your library so that words in your Bibles, dictionaries, and other books will automatically link to the hundreds of thousands of articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica. With the Encyclopedia Britannica, your Logos library becomes a more comprehensive resource for all of your academic, pastoral, or personal research needs. As a general reference text or a work of history, the Encyclopedia Britannica remains highly valuable for people of all ages, in all fields.

The three New Volumes, added in 1922, provided perspectives on events before, during, and after World War I. It included more articles than any previous edition, but kept them simple and concise. The 11th edition was recognized particularly for its scholarship and quality of writing, and it is still praised for its excellence and landmark literary style. For over 240 years, Encyclopedia Britannica has achieved its goals of serving as an excellent reference book and providing educational materials-because of this, it has remained one of the most well-respected and scholarly English encyclopedias. The 32 volumes cover geography, biography, biology, medicine, literature, religion, philosophy, art, law, and more. Four thousand contributors-including 110 Nobel Prize winners and five US presidents-have written on half a million topics. Since 1768, the Encyclopedia Britannica has set the standard for general reference works.
