An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Glossary of Library Terms. Riverside City College, Digital Library/Learning Resource Center. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by article name or by thematic categories, or, in the case of 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.Béjoint, Henri (2000). Modern Lexicography , pp. 30–31. Oxford University Press.
Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years and have evolved considerably during that time as regards language (written in a major international or a vernacular language), size (few or many volumes), intent (presentation of a global or a limited range of knowledge), cultural perspective (authoritative, ideological, didactic, utilitarian), authorship (qualifications, style), readership (education level, background, interests, capabilities), and the technologies available for their production and distribution (hand-written manuscripts, small or large print runs, Internet). 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 (together with the wiki website format) has vastly expanded the accessibility, authorship, readership, and variety of encyclopedia entries.
Etymology
The word encyclopedia comes from the Koine Greek ,Ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία , Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 1.10.1, at Perseus Project transliterated , from () ἐγκύκλιος , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project and () ; together, the phrase literally translates as .παιδεία , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project However, the two separate words were reduced to a single word due to a scribal errorAccording to some accounts, such as the American Heritage Dictionary , copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, . by copyists of a Latin manuscript edition of Quintilian in 1470. The copyists took this phrase to be a single Greek word, , with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the Neo-Latin word , 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 Quintilian 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 (although the spelling encyclopedia is increasingly gaining acceptance), 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.As explained by Richard Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture (Cambridge: University Press, 2001 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 bibliographies and statistics.
In addition, sometimes books or reading lists are compiled from a compendium of articles (either wholly or partially taken) 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:
Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field (the English-language Encyclopædia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples). 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. 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. Some systematic methods of organization are essential to making an encyclopedia usable for reference. There have been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of several separate articles, organized in alphabetical order) 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." 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 has been supported in both for-profit and non-profit contexts; the aforementioned Great Soviet Encyclopedia was entirely state-sponsored, while the Britannica was a for-profit institution.
Encyclopedic dictionaries
Some works entitled "dictionaries" are similar to encyclopedias, especially those concerned with a particular field (such as the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, and Black's Law Dictionary). 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 most individual words, while encyclopedias focus more on the concepts for which a more limited range of words stand. Dictionary entries are inextricably fixed to the word described, while in an encyclopedia, the same concept may be found under a different entry title. 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 modelled on that of Varro (1st century BCE). Pliny 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, especially its art, technology, and 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 (abbreviated Orig.). This encyclopedia—the first such Christian epitome—formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 booksMacFarlane 1980:4; MacFarlane translates Etymologiae viii. based on hundreds of classical sources, including the . Of the Etymologiae in its time it was said quaecunque fere sciri debentur, "practically everything that it is necessary to know".Braulio, Elogium of Isidore appended to Isidore's De viris illustribus, heavily indebted itself to Jerome. 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 (543–560), dedicated to the Christian divinity and the seven liberal arts. The encyclopedia of Suda, a massive 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, had 30,000 entries (broadly alphabetically arranged), many drawn from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers.
From India, the Siribhoovalaya (Kannada: ಸಿರಿಭೂವಲಯ), 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.