The Evolution of Encyclopedia

Humankind has kept records for thousands of years. It's believed that the Sumerians first began to write over 5,000 years ago. However, it wasn't until Aristotle that someone attempted to compile all of the knowledge in the world into one record.

384 B.C. to 322 B.C.

Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, known mostly for his theories on logic, metaphysics and ethics, became the first to attempt to encompass universal knowledge in some of his all-inclusive writings. Others would later try to follow his example.

A.D. 23 to A.D. 79

A Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder's, has one surviving work, Historia naturalis (Natural History). This work, sometimes called the first encyclopedia of natural science, consists of 37 books and deals with everything from the physical universe to the animal world. Encyclopedists following Pliny would again try to encompass all knowledge into one work.

A.D. 550 to A.D. 636

Isidore of Seville, Saint was a prominent Spanish churchman but is better known for his writings. His most influential work, Etymologies or Origins, aimed to document all of the knowledge of the time. This work is comprehensive and was passed on to scholars through the Middle Ages. But, Isidore wrote Origins solely on derivations and didn't do any first-hand research so the material doesn't stand on a scholarly base.

1200's

Later encyclopedists, Vincent of Beauvais, Roger Bacon and Brunetto Latini, each contributed to the compilation of knowledge in their own way. Vincent of Beauvais, a French Dominican friar is the author of three of the four sections of Speculum majus , a great summary of all of the knowledge of his time. The three sections written by Vincent are titled "Nature," "Instruction" and "History."

Bacon was an English scholastic, philosopher and scientist. Three of his most important works, the Opus majus , the Opus minor and the Opus tertium , proved to be assets to the encyclopedia endeavors.

Brunetto Latini lived about the same time as Bacon and is known for writing the first vernacular (language) encyclopedia, Li livres dou tresor .

18th Century

Denis Diderot greatly influenced the academic and political progression of France. He became most famous for editorship of the Encyclopedie , another attempt to catalog human knowledge. You can read parts of Diderot's encyclopedia on the following website that is dedicated to the translation of the articles from the Encyclopedie .*

1791

Thomas Dobson published the first Encyclopedia Britannica, a name that is renowned in the industry today. The Britannica has grown through the years along with other well-known encyclopedia publishers like World Book, created in 1917.

Present

For hundreds of years, these reference sets remained in printable versions. It wasn't until 1981 that Britannica released it's first digital library. We can now read about Aristotle and his great philosophies from a desktop encyclopedia .

* Parts of Diderot's encyclopedia can be read at the following URL: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;sid=b83031cf7749fc68f8874c3f387b6569;rgn=main;tpl=home.tpl , this website is dedicated to the translation of the articles from the Encyclopedie.

References

Illinois Saint Andrew Society [Illinois, 2005] 28 Sept. 2005 <http://www.chicago-scots.org/clubs/History/Names-D.htm>

Who2. Denis Diderot. [2005] 28 Sept. 2005

<http://who2.com/jeeves/denisdiderot.html>

Infoplease. Early Encyclopedias [2000-2005] 28 Sept. 2005

<http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0857972.html>

World Book Encyclopedia [2005] 28 Sept. 2005

<http://www.arikah.net/encyclopedia/World_Book_Encyclopedia>

Encyclopedia Britannica. History of Encyclopedia Britannica and Britannica Online. [2005] 28 Sept. 2005 <http://corporate.britannica.com/company_info.html>