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Sunday 4 January 2015

Encyclopedia

A Greek named Speusippos compiled the first known encyclopedia about 370 years before Christ was born.

The oldest encyclopedia still in existence, Naturalis Historia, was written in AD 77 by Pliny the Elder.

A Christian statesman and monk named Cassiodorus wrote an encyclopedia in the sixth century, in which he favored Christian knowledge. It is considered one of the formative books of the Middle Ages.

St. Isidore of Seville was a seventh-century theologian and encyclopedist who tried to record everything ever known.

Rhabanus Maurus was a scholar and monk in Charlemagne's empire, trained by the famous Alcuin himself. He wrote, without help, an encyclopedia twenty-two manuscript volumes long called On the Universe (De universo). Beginning with a study of the Trinity, it ended with an examination of garden tools.

A pictorial encyclopedia composed and illustrated by Herrad of Landsberg was completed in 1195.

The Great Canon of the Yongle Era an encyclopedia of the Chinese Ming dynasty, had 22,937 chapters in 10,000 volumes. More than 2,000 Chinese scholars worked on the book for five years before it was finished in 1410.

The Yongle Encyclopedia

The Great Canon of the Yongle Era held the record for the largest overall encyclopedia in the history of the world (written or not) until September 9, 2007 when Wikipedia surpassed it.

Nowe Ateny (New Athens) is the abbreviated title of the first Polish-language encyclopedia, authored by the 18th century Polish priest Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski. The first edition was published in 1745–1746. It included such definitions as "Horse: Everyone knows what a horse is", and "Dragon: Dragon is hard to overcome, yet one shall try."

The first edition of Encyclopedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh on December 6, 1768. It sold for 6d (tuppence more for a slightly posher version). Releasing the numbers in weekly instalments, the Britannica was completed in 1771. 

The second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes.



When Fat'h Ali became Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a set of the 3rd edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, which he read completely. After this feat, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica".

The Britannica is the oldest English-language encyclopedia still in production.


Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, went online on January 15, 2001. it developed from a complementary project for Nupedia, a free online English-language encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed under a formal process.

English-language Wikipedia reached its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station (see below) in 2006.


Source Christianity.com

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