THE NEW 



(Published by the Press of the University of Cambridge) 



THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BOOK OF OUR TIME A NEW 



INVENTORY AND AUTHORITATIVE SUMMARY 



OF THE ACCUMULATED EXPERIENCE 



AND KNOWLEDGE OF ALL AGES 



A book that lives its eleven successive editions the product of 

 a serious co-operative effort by 1,500 specialists written by author- 

 ities selected from 21 countries (214 Americans) 8 years in the 

 making cost $1,500,000 to produce issued not volume by volume, 

 but as a complete whole most comprehensive in scope and detailed 

 in treatment a book of practical things as well as of learning- 

 written in readable and interesting style convenient for reference- 

 provided with an index of 500,000 entries of indispensable value to 

 owners of the Britannica Year- Book. 



Once in a century perhaps a book is written which is a 

 thing of life. It survives the vicissitudes of changing stand- 

 ards and becomes a part of world literature. In 1768, 

 twenty years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, 

 and while America was still a British colony, such a book 

 was written. It was the first edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, in three modest volumes. From generation to 

 generation the heritage of this greatest of all works of 

 reference has been passed on. And with each successive 

 generation its scope has been broadened, until now eleven 

 successful new editions have been issued, culminating in 

 the present new work in 28 volumes and Index, whose 

 magnitude can only be suggested by the statement that 

 it comprises 40,000 articles, 44,000,000 words of text, 

 8,000 illustrations and maps, and an index volume of 500,000 entries. 



It is a significant fact that of the twenty or more notable 

 encyclopaedias published in various countries since the first 

 issue of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, some never attained 

 to a second edition, and only the German "Brockhaus" 

 can claim continued existence of more than fifty years. Why 

 have not these encyclopaedias been issued afresh in suc- 

 cessive generations, and what is the secret of the extra- 

 ordinary vitality of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first issued in 1768-71, 



First Edition 



Encyclopedia Britannica 



1768 



" The best, the most practical, and the most up-to-date of Encyclopaedias in 

 the English language." The Sun, New York. 



