109 



CHAPTER XXIV, 



ENCYCLOPAEDIAS AND SCIENTIFIC DICTIONARIES- 



Almost all the works of this kind which exist 

 are productions of the last age. The first at- 

 tempt of which we read, to give a distinct and 

 ^[lethodical view of all arts and sciences, in a se- 

 ries of volumes, was that by Avicenna, the great 

 Arabian philosopher and physician, who flou- 

 rished in the eleventh century. At the age of 

 twenty-one, as we are told, he conceived the bold 

 design of incorporating into one work all the parts 

 of human knowledge then studied ; and, in pur- 

 suance of this plan, compiled a real Encydopce- 

 dia, in twenty volumes, to which he gave the 

 name of The Utility of Ul Hides, The art of print- 

 ing, however, being then unknown, it is not to be 

 supposed that his work had any considerable cir- 

 culation, or that it contributed much to the pro- 

 motion of knowledge. 



The next publication of this kind worthy of 

 notice, is the Margarita PhilosopJiica, by Reis- 

 chius, a learned German, printed at Strasburg, 

 in I0O9. About the same time with Reischius 

 flourished Andrew Matthew Acquaviva, duke of 

 Alti and Teramo, in thj kingdom of Naples, who 

 formed a plan of a universal dictionary of arts 

 and sciences, to wliich he first gave the name x)^ 



