Encyclopedia provides us facts on all important subject. The word ‘encyclopedia’ began as a Greek word meaning ‘instruction in the whole circle’. It was first used in English by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1538 who said it was “the lerynge which comprehends all liberal science and studies.”
In early times, encyclopedia were not arranged alphabetically, but in any way the author liked. The oldest encyclopedia that covers many subjects was written by Roman called Pliny. It was called ‘Natural History’ and it was written in the 1st century A.D. It had 37 volumes and contained more than 20,000 items. Pliny quoted from more than 450 authors. This book was considered so valuable that there were 43 editions of it up to 1536!
The largest encyclopedia ever written was the third Chinese encyclopedia, which was ordered put together by a Chinese king who died in 1721. The set contained 5,020 volumes! The first encyclopedia which had the subjects arranged in alphabetical order was written by an English Clergyman, John Harris, and was published in 1704. It was called ‘Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences’.
French made one of the greatest efforts to put together an encyclopedia in 1743. It was called the ‘Encyclopedia’ which invented articles from great Frenchmen of the time including Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot.
The ‘Encyclopedia Britanica’ or ‘Dictionary of Arts and Sciences’ was started in Scotland in 1768. It has been published in the United States since 1911.
