Encyclopedia


An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by article name or by thematic categories, or, on online encyclopedias, they are hyperlinked and searchable. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries. Generally speaking, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information concerning the subject named in the article's title; this is unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, such as their etymology, meaning, pronunciation, use, and grammatical forms.
Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years and have evolved considerably during that time as regards language, size, intent, cultural perspective, authorship, readership, and the technologies available for their production and distribution. As a valued source of reliable information compiled by experts, printed versions found a prominent place in libraries, schools, and other educational institutions.
In the 21st century, the appearance of digital and open-source versions such as Wikipedia has vastly expanded the accessibility, authorship, readership, and variety of encyclopedia entries.

Etymology

The word encyclopedia comes from the Koine Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, transliterated , from and ; together, the phrase literally translates as. However, the two separate words were reduced to a single word due to a scribal error by copyists of a Latin manuscript edition of Quintillian in 1470. The copyists took this phrase to be a single Greek word, enkuklopaideía, with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the Neo-Latin word encyclopaedia, which was in turn borrowed into English. Because of this compounded word, readers since the fifteenth century have often, and incorrectly, thought that the Roman authors Quintillian and Pliny described an ancient genre. Following Noah Webster's spelling reform, the spelling of the word varies between encyclopedia in American English, encyclopaedia in British English, and encyclopædia in certain specialized cases.

Characteristics

The modern encyclopedia evolved from the dictionary in the 18th century; this lineage can be seen in the alphabetical order of print encyclopedias. Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been compiled by well-educated authors, but they are significantly different in structure. A dictionary is a linguistic work that primarily focuses on an alphabetical listing of words and their definitions. Synonymous words and those related by the subject matter are to be found scattered around the dictionary, giving no obvious place for in-depth treatment. Thus, a dictionary typically provides limited information, analysis or background for the word defined. While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader lacking in understanding the meaning, significance or limitations of a term, and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge.
To address those needs, an encyclopedia article is typically not limited to simple definitions, and is not limited to defining an individual word, but provides a more extensive meaning for a subject or discipline. The Merriam-Webster definition of encyclopedia states that it is "a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject". In addition to defining and listing synonymous terms for the topic, the article can treat the topic's more extensive meaning in more depth and convey the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject. An encyclopedia article also often includes many maps and illustrations, as well as bibliography and statistics.
In addition, sometimes books or reading lists are compiled from a compendium of articles from a specific encyclopedia.

Four major elements

Four major elements define an encyclopedia: its subject matter, its scope, its method of organization, and its method of production:
  1. Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field. General encyclopedias may contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers. There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia or Encyclopaedia Judaica.
  2. Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopedia of medicine, philosophy or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the target audience.
  3. Some systematic methods of organization are essential to making an encyclopedia usable for reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopedias: the alphabetical method and organization by hierarchical categories. The former method is today the more common, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer new capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from Horace on the title page of the 18th century Encyclopédie suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection."
  4. As modern multimedia and the information age have evolved, new methods have emerged for the collection, verification, summation, and presentation of information of all kinds. Projects such as Interpedia, Everything2, Microsoft Encarta, h2g2, and Wikipedia are examples of new forms of the encyclopedia as information retrieval becomes simpler. The method of production for an encyclopedia historically has been supported in both for-profit and non-profit contexts; such was the case of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia mentioned above which was entirely state-sponsored, while the Britannica was supported as a for-profit institution.

    Encyclopedic dictionaries

Some works entitled "dictionaries" are similar to encyclopedias, especially those concerned with a particular field. The Macquarie Dictionary, Australia's national dictionary, became an encyclopedic dictionary after its first edition in recognition of the use of proper nouns in common communication, and the words derived from such proper nouns.

Differences between encyclopedias and dictionaries

There are some broad differences between encyclopedias and dictionaries. Most noticeably, encyclopedia articles are longer, fuller and more thorough than entries in most general-purpose dictionaries. There are differences in content as well. Generally speaking, dictionaries provide linguistic information about words themselves, while encyclopedias focus more on the concepts for which those words stand. Thus, while dictionary entries are inextricably fixed to the word described, encyclopedia articles can be given a different entry name. As such, dictionary entries are not fully translatable into other languages, but encyclopedia articles can be.
In practice, however, the distinction is not concrete, as there is no clear-cut difference between factual, "encyclopedic" information and linguistic information typically found in dictionaries. Thus encyclopedias may contain material that is also found in dictionaries, and vice versa. In particular, dictionary entries often contain factual information about what the word refers to.

Pre-modern encyclopedias

The earliest encyclopedic work to have survived to modern times is the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the 1st century AD, a work indebted to Varro. He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, architecture, medicine, geography, geology, and all aspects of the world around him. This work became very popular in antiquity, was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed in 1470, and has remained popular ever since as a source of information on the Roman world, and especially Roman art, Roman technology and Roman engineering.
The Spanish scholar Isidore of Seville was the first Christian writer to try to compile a summa of universal knowledge, the Etymologiae, also known by classicists as the Origines. This encyclopedia—the first such Christian epitome—formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 books based on hundreds of classical sources, including the Naturalis Historia. Of the Etymologiae in its time it was said quaecunque fere sciri debentur, "practically everything that it is necessary to know". Among the areas covered were: grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, law, the Catholic Church and heretical sects, pagan philosophers, languages, cities, animals and birds, the physical world, geography, public buildings, roads, metals, rocks, agriculture, ships, clothes, food, and tools.
Another Christian encyclopedia was the Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum of Cassiodorus dedicated to the Christian divinity and the seven liberal arts. The encyclopedia of Suda, a massive 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, had 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers.
From India, the Siribhoovalaya, variously dated to c. 800 AD, the 15th century, or an even more recent time, is a work of Kannada literature written by Kumudendu Muni, a Jain monk. It is unique because rather than employing alphabets, it is composed entirely in Kannada numerals. Many philosophies which existed in the Jain classics are eloquently and skillfully interpreted in the work.
The 2nd century BC reference work Shiben has been described as a Chinese encyclopedia of genealogies, while the Huanglan, completed in the 220s, was an early leishu encyclopedia. The Yiwen Leiju, completed in 624, was a landmark literature encyclopedia of the early Tang dynasty. The Tongdian, Tongzhi and Wenxian Tongkao were three comprehensive encyclopedias of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, and were collectively referred to as the Three Tongs. The enormous encyclopedic works of the Four Great Books of Song, compiled by the 11th century during the early Song dynasty, was a massive literary undertaking for the time. The last encyclopedia of the four, the Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau, amounted to 9.4 million Chinese characters in 1,000 written volumes. The Yongle Encyclopedia comprised 11,095 volumes, making it the largest paper encyclopedia in world history.
There were many great encyclopedists throughout Chinese history, including the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo with his Dream Pool Essays of 1088; the statesman, inventor, and agronomist Wang Zhen with his Nong Shu of 1313; and Song Yingxing with his Tiangong Kaiwu. Song Yingxing was termed the "Diderot of China" by British historian Joseph Needham.