Encyclopaedias 79 



1734-41, 1734-38 (that is a different edition from the previous one). Though 

 Bayle died at the beginning of the eighteenth century (in 1706) he influenced very 

 deeply the whole of that century.^ 



Let us now consider the encyclopaedias born in the eighteenth century, dealing 

 with them in the chronological order of their first editions. 



The first is Ephraim Chambers (d. 1740): Cyclopaedia, or An universal dic- 

 tionary of arts and sciences (2 vols. London 1728). Second edition ( 1738). Italian 

 translation (Venice 1748-49). Seventh edition (2 vols. 1751-52), with supplement 

 by George Lewis Scott (2 vols. 1753). Eighth edition of the text, supplement, 

 and a great many additions arranged in one alphabet, by Abraham Rees (4 vols. 

 London 1778-88), a fifth volume was added in 1788. We may say that Chambers' 

 dictionary was used from 1728 to the end of the century. We remember it today, 

 however, less for its own virtues than because it was the indirect cause of the 

 Encyclopedic. 



The Encyclopedic was preceded by a German work, remarkable because of its 

 gigantic size, the Grosses voUstandiges Universal Lexicon ( 64 vols, folio, Halle 

 1732-50), Nothige Supplemente (4 vols., A-Caq, Leipzig 1751-54), edited or pub- 

 lished by Johann Heinrich Zedler of Breslau (1706-63). 



Young Denis Diderot (1713-84) having undertaken to translate Chambers' 

 Cyclopaedia for a Paris publisher realized that something much better could be 

 done and should be attempted. The result was L'EncycIopedie, ou Dictionnaire 

 raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. 

 Mis en ordre et public par M. Diderot . . . et quant a la partie mathematique par 

 M. d'Alembert (17 vols. Paris 1751-65), Supplement (4 vols. Amsterdam 1776- 

 77), Recueil de planches sur les sciences, les arts liberaux et les arts mechaniques 

 avec leur explication (11 vols, of plates, Paris 1762-72), Suite du recueil de 

 planches (Paris, Panckoucke 1777). Table analytique et raisonnee des matieres 

 contenues dans les XXXIII volumes in folio du Dictionnaire etc. (2 vols. Paris, 

 Panckoucke 1780). Note the accent on science in the title. The Encyclopedic was 

 perhaps the most powerful intellectual force of the century, not only from the 

 social or political point of view but also from our point of view, the interpretation 

 and diffusion of science. 



Various reprints of this or that volume or of whole sets were made in different 

 locahties; the bibliography of that is difficult and not necessary here. Mention must 

 be made however of the Encyclopedie methodique undertaken in 1781 by the book- 

 seller Charles Joseph Panckoucke (1736-98) of Paris, who had taken part in the 

 diffusion of the old Encyclopedie itself ( see above ) . The Encyclopedie methodique 

 was an enormous undertaking; begun in 1781, it was not yet completed haff a century 

 later (1832) when it was stopped; 166 volumes had already appeared and the 

 work was still unfinished. Some articles mostly by Diderot and d'Alembert were 

 borrowed from the old Encyclopedie, but very much was added. Panckoucke's 

 main idea was to divide the work into a series of partial encyclopaedias each dealing 

 with a branch of knowledge or technology {e.g., agriculture, 7 vols.; anatomy, 4 

 vols.; botany, 11 vols.; chemistry, 4 vols-.). This idea was interesting, and has been 

 frequently imitated even in our own time. To my mind it is a perversion of the ency- 

 clopaedic purpose. An alphabetic encyclopaedia is exceedingly useful in every age 

 for quick reference. Partial encyclopaedias are less useful, for the equivalent is 

 found in systematic treatises dealing with the same subjects; the indices of those 

 treatises serve the same purpose as the alphabetical arrangement of the partial en- 

 cyclopaedias and the explanations available in the treatises are more satisfying and 

 more complete because each is placed in its proper logical context. 



The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (29 vols., London 1845; 2nd ed. 40 vols. 1848- 

 58) went a step further than the Encyclopedie methodique in trying to explain all 

 the arts and sciences in a single natural sequence. The plan had been proposed by 

 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 1772-1834) whose essay on method was pub- 

 lished in the first volume as a general introduction. It was divided into four main 



*° Sarton: Boyle and Bayle. The Sceptical Chemist and the Sceptical Historian (Chymia 

 3, 155-89, H fig., 1950). See also Isis 31, 442-44. 



