Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelled with æ, the ae-ligature) was first published in 1768–1771 as Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan. The Britannica was an important early English-language general encyclopedia and is still regarded as one of the most important reference books in the English language. It is published today by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., a privately held company.

From the late 18th century to the early 20th century, the Britannica's articles were often judged as the foremost authority on a topic, and sometimes included new research or theory intended for a scholarly audience. During this era, the Britannica gained its reputation and had a unique position in English-speaking culture.

The role of the encyclopedia changed substantially in the early 20th century, and the Britannica reflected these changes, from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, onward. One key change was a shift away from attempting to encompass the cutting edge of human knowledge, a goal made impractical by, among other things, the rapid expanding of scientific knowledge around the turn of the century. A second change reflected a changing readership. As the use of the encyclopedia as a general reference grew, readers expected shorter, more readable articles, rather than the primary authoritative scholarship which had defined earlier versions.

Today, new reference sources, including academic journals, textbooks, specialized publications and electronic resources have redefined, and, more recently nearly eliminated, the demand for the print encyclopedia. The Britannica has evolved primarily into electronic versions available on CD-ROM and via the World Wide Web, though a print edition is still available. It has survived fierce competition from an ever-increasing number of alternative information sources. The articles in the Britannica are commonly considered accurate, reliable, and well-written, and it continues to be widely consulted as a work of general reference.

History

A product of the Scottish Enlightenment, the Britannica was originally published in Edinburgh in the second-half of the 18th century. The first Britannica was the brainchild of Colin Macfarquhar, a bookseller and printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, who published the reference work pseudonymously as a "Society of Gentlemen." The editor was scholar William Smellie, then twenty-eight years old, who was offered £200 to produce the Encyclopaedia in 100 parts and three volumes. The first part appeared in December 1768, priced six pence. By 1771, the Encyclopedia was complete with 2,391 pages and 160 engraved illustrations, and an estimated 3,000 copies were sold. It consisted of three equally sized volumes covering A-B, C-L and M-Z.

It was compiled, as the title-page says, on a new plan. The different sciences and arts were "digested into distinct treatises or systems," of which there are 45 with cross headings, that is, titles printed across the page, and about 30 other articles more than three pages long. The longest are "Anatomy," 166 pages, and "Surgery," 238 pages. "The various technical terms, etc., are explained as they occur in the order of the alphabet." "Instead of dismembering the sciences, by attempting to treat them intelligibly under a multitude of technical terms, they have digested the principles of every science in the form of systems or distinct treatises, and explained the terms as they occur in the order of the alphabet, with references to the sciences to which they belong." This plan, as the compilers say, differs from that of all the previous dictionaries of arts and sciences. Its merit and novelty consist in… on the one hand keeping important subjects together, and on the other facilitating reference by numerous separate articles.Quoted from: Online Encyclopedia article on encyclopaedia

Owing to the success of the first edition, a more ambitious second edition followed. This time Smellie declined as editor, and Macfarquhar took over the role himself, aided by James Tytler. The second edition was eventually published 1777–1784 in ten volumes with 8,595 pages.

The plan of the work was enlarged by the addition of history and biography, which encyclopaedias in general had long omitted. "From the time of the second edition of this work, every cyclopaedia of note, in England and elsewhere, has been a cyclopaedia, not solely of arts and sciences, but of the whole wide circle of general learning and miscellaneous information " (Quarterly Review, cxiii. 362).

However, it was the third edition, published 1788–1797 and edited by Macfarquhar and after his death by George Gleig, which finally realized the encyclopedic vision. Not only broader in scope, with 18 volumes plus a two volume supplement totalling over 16,000 pages, the third edition was also the first to include articles written specifically for the Britannica by experts and academics, many recruited by Gleig. The third edition established the foundation of the Britannica as an important, and in many cases the definitive, reference on many topics for much of the next century.

In general, the major articles in the editions through the tenth edition were far longer and more scholarly than the articles in modern encyclopedias. For an example, see ELIOHS' online version of the article History from the third edition (in the external links section below). Nineteenth century editions of the Britannica regularly included notable new or major works from its authors.

The extraordinary French Encyclopédie is widely considered to have inspired the publication of the Britannica. But unlike the Encyclopédie, the Britannica was an extremely conservative publication. Later editions were usually dedicated to the reigning monarch. In dedicating the supplement to the third edition to the King, Gleig wrote,

The French Encyclopédie had been accused, and justly accused, of having disseminated far and wide the seeds of anarchy and atheism. If the Encyclopaedia Britannica shall in any degree counteract the tendency of that pestiferous work, even these two volumes will not be wholly unworthy of your Majesty's attention.

Archibald Constable was involved in the publication to varying degrees from 1788 and after Macfarquhar's death in 1793. In 1812 he acquired the Britannica from its trustees, and published the Britannica through 1826. The fourth through sixth editions, and the supplement to them, included works by a number of highly-regarded Scottish and English authors and scientists: William Hazlitt, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Walter Scott, and Thomas Young, whose article on Egypt included the translation of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone.

In the late 1820s, rights to the Britannica were acquired by the Edinburgh publishing firm of Adam & Charles Black, who published the seventh and eighth editions, and included new chapters, such as 'Architecture' by William Hosking. The landmark ninth edition, often called the Scholar's edition, was published from 1875 to 1889. The ninth edition included numerous in-depth, scholarly articles by pre-eminent authors, and therefore is considered by some to mark the high point in the history of English-language encyclopedias.

A & C Black moved to London in 1895. The Britannica later became associated with The Times newspaper, and was sold in 1901. The tenth edition of eleven volumes including map and index volumes was issued in effect as a large supplement to the ninth edition. The American Horace Everett Hooper was publisher from 1897 to 1922. From 1909, and for the eleventh edition, the publication became associated with the University of Cambridge, in England.

The substantially rewritten eleventh edition of 1910–1911 is also a classic edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, but reflected the new goals of its new owners. The edition balances scholarly accuracy and scope with a readability intended to gain a wider audience and increased sales, using less lengthy but still thorough articles. Sometimes called the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, this edition is available in the public domain. The 11th edition was the first edition to be published substantially at one time, instead of volume by volume. The complete text is freely available online.

The trademark and publication rights were sold after the 11th edition to Sears Roebuck and it moved to Chicago, Illinois, United States. The 12th and 13th editions each took the form of a three volume supplement or update, meant to be used in conjunction with the 11th edition. The 14th edition of 1929 marked a major shift, with fewer volumes and shorter articles, meant to be more accessible as a reference to a wider range of readers. However, the 14th edition was criticised by priest-turned-atheist Joseph McCabe, who claimed that it had been stripped of unfavourable content about the Catholic Church.

Sears Roebuck offered the rights to the Britannica as a gift to the University of Chicago in 1941. William Benton figured as publisher from 1943 to his death in 1973, followed by his widow Helen Hemingway Benton until her own death in 1974.

In January 1996, the Britannica was purchased by billionaire Swiss financier Jacob Safra.

In October 2002, Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs set out to read all 33,000 pages of the Britannica. He chronicled this quest for knowledge in the 2004 book The Know-It-All (see References below for full citation).

CD-ROM edition and Britannica Online

In the 1980s, Microsoft approached Britannica Inc. to collaborate on a CD-ROM encyclopedia. Britannica Inc., feeling that they had control of the market and showing strong profits (sales of the complete Britannica were priced between ^*]1,500 and $2,200), turned Microsoft down. Britannica Inc.'s senior management viewed their product as a luxury brand with an impeccable reputation handed down from generation to generation. They did not believe that a CD-ROM could adequately compete or supplement their business. In turn, Microsoft used content from Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia to create what is now known as Encarta.

In 1990, the Britannica's sales reached all-time high of $650 million. But Encarta, released in 1993, became a software staple with almost every computer purchase and the Britannica's market share plummeted. Britannica Inc. countered by offering a CD-ROM version of their product, although a CD-ROM could not generate $500 to $600 in sales commissions as the print version did. Britannica Inc. decided on charging $995 for customers looking to purchase only the CD-ROM while at the same time bundling a free disc with the print version. Britannica Inc. hoped that including the CD-ROM would entice buyers to stay with the brand.

In 1994, Britannica Inc. launched an online version of their encyclopedia, with subscriptions for sale for $2000. By 1996, the cost of the CD-ROM had dropped to $200. Sales had plummeted to $325 million - about half their 1990 levels. Only 55,000 hard copy versions were sold in 1994, compared with 117,000 in 1990, and sales later fell to 20,000."Sales plummeted from 100,000 a year to just 20,000. " Encyclopaedia Britannica changes to survive Facing financial pressure, Britannica Inc. was purchased by Swiss financier Jacob Safra in 1996 for $135 million, a fraction of its book value. Since then Safra has introduced massive price-cutting measures in an effort to compete with Encarta, even offering the entire reference free of charge for a time (around 18 months, from October 1999 to March 2001) on the internet.

Former editor-in-chief Robert McHenry believes that Britannica failed to exploit its early advantages in the market for electronic encyclopedias. Britannica had, for example, published the second multimedia encyclopedia titled Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia as early as 1989 (the first one being Academic American Encyclopedia published by Grolier), but did not launch Britannica CD until 1994, one year after Microsoft launched their Encarta encyclopedia. McHenry believes these failures were due to a reluctance among senior management to fully embrace new technology, caused largely by the overriding influence of the sales staff and management. The sales personnel earned commissions from door-to-door selling of the print encyclopedias, which McHenry believes led to decisions about the distribution and pricing of the electronic products, being driven by the desires of the sales personnel, rather than market conditions and customer expectations.

Competition

Today, one of the biggest challenges to the Britannica is the ease with which people can find information online. Many people simply prefer to find information with the help of a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo! or Ask.com. While the information available on the internet is typically not as structured and well-vetted as that contained in Britannica, this is compensated for somewhat by convenience and the sheer volume of information typically available on any subject. Advanced searching algorithms, such as page rank algorithm used by Google, also assist an experienced user to quickly narrow down an investigation to relevant pages.

Online alternatives to the Britannica include Wikipedia, a Web-based free-content encyclopedia. Wikipedia is free to use; however, the print and electronic versions of Britannica are available at libraries for checkout (either directly or through ILL) and can be accessed from home using some library web sites.

Substantive comparisons between the Britannica and Wikipedia may be hard to draw. The journal Nature reported on December 14, 2005 that of the 42 science articles it reviewed, there were 162 mistakes in Wikipedia versus 123 for Britannica.Nature 438, 900-901 (15 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438900a Britannica Inc. attacked Nature's study as flawed and misleading Britannica: Fatally Flawed (PDF) and demanded a retraction. It mentioned that two of the articles in the study were actually from a Britannica year book, and not the encyclopedia. Another two were from Compton's Encyclopedia (called the Britannica Student Encyclopedia on the company's web site) and yet another researcher comment is regarding an unknown publication. Encyclopaedia Britannica went on to mention that some of the articles presented to reviewers were actually combinations of several articles. Britannica continued by citing several facts that were classified as errors by Nature but were actually not incorrect (e.g. spelling Crotona as Crotone). Nature defended its story and declined to retract it, stating that as it was comparing Wikipedia with the web version of Britannica it used whatever relevant material was available on Britannica's website.Nature: Encyclopedia Britannica: a response (PDF)

Comparing Encyclopaedia Britannica to other print encyclopedias also provides a mixed picture. Kenneth Kister's Kister's Best Encyclopedias, 2nd edition (1994) compared the accuracy of several encyclopedias. Britannica--although more accurate than many--was ranked lower than Encyclopedia Americana, World Book Encyclopedia, and Compton's Encyclopedia, all of which received perfect scores. Another area in which Britannica lags when compared to other print reference works is recency. Kister's ranked Britannica lower in this respect than the same three aforementioned works, as well.

Current version

Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. now owns a trademark on the word "Britannica." The current version of Britannica was written by over 4,000 contributors, including noted scholars such as Milton Friedman, Michael DeBakey and the late Carl Sagan. Under the influence of the director of planning, Mortimer Adler, the 15th edition, first published in 1974 and frequently reissued since, was published not as one alphabetical sequence of volumes as previously but in three parts that covered topics in different degrees of depth: a one-volume Propædia that provides a structured hierarchy to all the information in the set, a 12-volume Micropædia which contains short articles (most of them from one to five paragraphs), and a 17-volume Macropædia for longer articles, which range from a few pages to over three hundred pages. The Micropædia provides cross-references from articles to more extended treatment in the Macropaedia or to other related Micropædia coverage. Macropædia articles deal with topics such as countries, individual sciences and surveys of broad divisions of culture. They contain many subsections which would be covered by individual articles in most encyclopedias. Britannica's intention is to provide systematic surveys of knowledge and to put detail into context. A two-volume index was added in 1985. The print edition continues to be produced, with each version being an updated printing of the 15th edition. Forty-six percent of the content of the encyclopedia has been revised within the last three years.^{A new revised print set was issued in 2005.^{[http://corporate.britannica.com/company_info.html}}

The Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2006 DVD contains over 55 million words and just over 100,000 articles. This includes 73,645 regular Encyclopædia Britannica articles, with the remainder drawn from the Britannica Student Encyclopedia, the Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia and the Britannica Book of the Year (1993-2004), plus a small number of "classic" articles from early editions of the encyclopedia. The package also includes a range of supplementary content including maps, videos, sound clips, animations and web links. It also offers study tools and dictionary and thesaurus entries from Merriam-Webster.^*

The online version has 118,000+ articlesand is updated daily. It also has daily features and updates and links to news articles from New York Times and the BBC. Subscriptions cost $69.95 per year in the United States and £39.99 per annum in the United Kingdom.^{[http://www.britannica.co.uk/BT_Click_Buy.htm} Weekly and monthly plans are also available. Special subscription plans are offered to schools, colleges and libraries and this is an important part of Britannica's business.

Dale Hoiberg, a sinologist, is the publication's current editor-in-chief. Among his predecessors were Hugh Chisholm (1903–1913, 1920–1924), James Louis Garvin (1926–1932), Franklin Henry Hooper (1932–1938), Walter Yust (1938–1960), Harry Ashmore (1960–1963), Warren E. Preece (1964–1975), and Robert McHenry (1992–1997). Ted Pappas is the current executive editor. Earlier holders of that position were John V. Dodge (1950–1964) and Philip W. Goetz. Don Yannias, former CEO of the company when it was in financial difficulties, serves on Britannica's Board of Directors.

Among the members of an international editorial council planning a new (16th) edition are such notable figures as Nobel laureate in Physics Murray Gell-Mann, biologist and Nobel laureate David Baltimore, cognitive scientist Donald Norman, economist Amartya Sen, philosopher Thomas Nagel, former Ecuadorian president Rosalía Arteaga and Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Zaha Hadid.

There are several abbreviated Britannica encyclopedias. The single-volume Britannica Concise Encyclopedia has 28,000 articles; Compton's by Britannica, which incorporates the former Compton's Encyclopedia, consists of 26 volumes with a total of 11,000 pages,^* and is aimed at secondary school age children; My First Britannica is aimed at 6 to 12 year olds; and the Britannica Discovery Library is targeted at pre-school children. Since 1938 Britannica has published annually a Book of the Year chronicling the past year's events, also available online back to the 1994 edition (covering the events of 1993). Britannica Inc also publishes a number of specialist reference works.

Edition history

-	Edition	Published	Size	Editor(s)	-	1st	1768–1771	3 vol.	William Smellie	-	2nd	1777–1784	10 vol.	James Tytler	-	3rd	1788–1797, 1801 sup.	18 vol. + 2 sup.	Colin Macfarquhar and George Gleig	-	4th	1801–1809	20 vol.	James Millar	-	5th	1815	20 vol.	James Millar and Thomas Bonar	-	6th	1820–1823, 1815–1824 sup.	20 vol. + 6 sup. ¹	Charles Maclaren and Macvey Napier	-	7th	1830–1842	21 vol.	Macvey Napier	-	8th	1853–1860	22 vol. ²	Thomas Stewart Traill	-	9th	1875–1889	25 vol. ³	Thomas Spencer Baynes (to 1880, then W. Robertson Smith)	-	10th	1902–1903	9th ed. + 11 sup ⁴	Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Hugh Chisholm, and Arthur T. Hadley with Franklin H. Hooper	-	11th	1910–1911	29 vol	Hugh Chisholm	-	12th	1921–1922	11th ed. + 3 sup. ⁵	Hugh Chisholm	-	13th	1926	11th ed. + 3 sup. ⁶	James Louis Garvin	-	14th	1929–1973	24 vol. ⁷	James Louis Garvin with Franklin Henry Hooper	-	15th	1974–1984	30 vol. ⁸	Mortimer J. Adler, William Benton, and Charles E. Swanson	-	1985–	32 vol. ⁹

vol. = volume
sup. = supplement

¹ Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. With preliminary dissertations on the history of the sciences.

² 8th to 14th editions included a separate index volume.

³ 9th ed. featured articles by notables of the day, such as James Maxwell on electricity and magnetism, and William Thomson (who became Lord Kelvin) on heat.

⁴ 10th ed. included a maps volume and a cumulative index volume for the 9th and 10th edition volumes: the new volumes, constituting, in combination with the existing volumes of the 9th ed., the 10th ed. ... and also supplying a new, distinctive, and independent library of reference dealing with recent events and developments

⁵ Vols. 30-32 ... the New volumes constituting, in combination with the twenty-nine volumes of the eleventh edition, the twelfth edition

⁶ This supplement replaced the previous supplement: The three new supplementary volumes constituting, with the volumes of the latest standard edition, the thirteenth edition.

⁷ This edition was the first to be kept up to date by continual (usually annual) revision.

⁸ The 15th edition (introduced as "Britannica 3") was published as multiple sets: the 10-volume Micropædia (containing short articles and served as an index), the 19-volume Macropædia, plus the Propædia (see text).

⁹ In 1985 the system was modified by removing the index function from the Micropædia and adding a separate two-volume index; the Macropædia articles were further consolidated into fewer, larger ones (for example, the previously separate articles about the 50 U.S. states were all included into the "United States of America" article), with some medium-length articles moved to the Micropædia.

The first CD-ROM edition was issued in 1994. At that time also an online version was offered for paid subscription. In 1999 this was offered for free, and no revised print versions appeared. The experiment was ended, however, in 2001 and a new printed set was issued in 2002.

Edition notes

Notes

References

Herman Kogan, The Great EB: The Story of the Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958)
H. Einbinder, The Myth of the Britannica (New York: Grove Press, 1964)
A.J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004)