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An encyclopedia (alternatively encyclopędia) is a written compendium of human knowledge. The term comes from the Greek words εγκύκλιος παιδεία, enkyklios paideia ("in a circle of instruction"). From εγκύκλιος, circuit shaped from κύκλος circuit and παιδεία, meaning instruction. See the Note on spelling below. Many encyclopedias are titled Cyclopaedia and the terms are interchangeable.
Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in many different fields (the English language Encyclopędia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples), or they can specialize in a particular field (such as an encyclopedia of medicine or philosophy). There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics from a particular cultural or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Judaica.
Many dictionaries are encyclopedic in their range, especially those concerned with a particular field (such as the Dictionary of National Biography). Encyclopedic works have been produced throughout much of human history, but the term encyclopedia was not used to refer to such works until the 16th century.
There are two main methods of organising encyclopedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of a number of separate articles, organised in alphabetical order), or organisation by hierarchical categories. The former is the most common by far, especially for general works.
The idea of collecting all of the world's knowledge within arm's reach under a single roof goes back to the ancient Library of Alexandria and PergamonPergamon or Pergamum (modern day Bergama in Turkey) was a Greek city, in northwestern Anatolia, 16 miles from the Aegean Sea, located on a promintory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakir), that became an important kingdom during the Hel. Many writers of antiquity (such as AristotleAristotle ( Greek Αριστοτλης Aristotelēs) ( 384 BCE March 7, 322 BCE) was a Greek scientist and philosopher. Along with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential philo) attempted to write comprehensively about all human knowledge.
The ChineseChina is the world's oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. Successive dynasties developed systems of bureaucratic cont emperor Cheng-Zu of the Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty ( Chinese: ; Pinyin: ming chao was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, though claims to the Ming throne (now collectively called the Southern Ming survived until 1662. The dynasty followed the Yuan Dynasty and preceded the Qing oversaw the compilation of the Yongle EncyclopediaThe Yongle Encyclopedia or Yongle Dadian was commissioned by the Chinese Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle in 1403. It's the world's earliest and greatest encyclopedia. Two thousand scholars worked on the project, incorporating eight thousand texts from ancient, one of the largest encyclopedias in history, which was completed in 1408Events December 13 The Order of the Dragon is officially formated under King Sigismund of Hungary. Henry, Prince of Wales (later Henry V of England) retakes Aberystwyth from Owen Glendower. The Yongle Encyclopedia is completed. Births Karl Knutsson Bonde, and comprised over 11,000 handwritten volumes, of which only about 400 now survive.
In the succeeding dynasty, the ChineseChina is the world's oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. Successive dynasties developed systems of bureaucratic cont emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty personally composed 40,000 poems as part of a 4.7 million page library in 4 divisions, including thousands of essays. It is instructive to compare his title for this knowledge, Watching the waves in a Sacred Sea to a Western-style title for all knowledge.
The early Muslim compilations of knowledge in the middle ages included many comprehensive works, and much development of what we now call scientific method, historical method , and citation. Notable works include Abu Bakr al-Razi's encyclopedia of science, the Mutazilite Al-Kindi's prolific output of 270 books, and Ibn Sina's medical encyclopedia, which was a standard reference work for centuries. Also notable are works of universal history (or sociology) from Asharites, al-Tabri, al-Masudi, Ibn Rustah, al-Athir , and Ibn Khaldun, whose Muqadimmah contains cautions regarding trust in written records that remain wholly applicable today. These people had an incalculable influence on methods of research and editing, due in part to the Islamic practice of isnad which emphasized fidelity to written record, checking sources, and skeptical inquiry.
However, these works were rarely available to more than specialists: they were expensive, and written for those extending knowledge rather than (with some exceptions in medicine) using it.
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