ENCYCLOPAEDIA was edited by J. J. Schwabe, public teacher of philosophy at Leipsic. Ephraim Chambers published his Cyclopaedia; or ait Universal Dictionary of Art and Sciences, containing an Explication of the Terms and an Account of the Things Signified thereby in the several Arts, Liberal and Mechani cal, and the several Sciences, Human and Divine, London, 1728, fol. 2 vols. The dedication to the king is dated October 15, 1727. Chambers endeavoured to connect the scattered articles relating to each subject by a system of references, and to consider " the several matters, not only in themselves, but relatively, or as they respect each other; both to treat them as so many wholes and as so many parts of some greater whole." Under each article he refers to the subject to which it belongs, and also to its subordinate parts ; thus Copyhold has a reference to Tenure, of which it is a particular kind, and other references to Rolls, Custom, Manor, Fine, Charterland, and Freehold. In his preface he gives an " analysis of the divisions of know ledge," 47 in number, with classed lists of the articles belonging to each, intended to serve as table of contents and also as a rubric or directory indicating the order in which the articles should be read. But it does so very im perfectly, as the lists are curtailed by many et cccteras; thus 19 occur in a list of 119 articles under Anatomy, which has nearly 2200 articles in Rees s index. He omits etymologies unless " they appeared of some significance;" he gives only one grammatical form of each word, unless peculiar ideas are arbitrarily attached to different forms, as precipitate, precipitant, precipitation, when each has an article; and he omits complex ideas generally known, and thus " gets free of a vast load of plebeian words." His work, he says, is a collection, not the produce of one man s wit, for that would go but a little -way, but of the whole commonwealth of learning. "Nobody that fell in my way has been spared, antient or modern, foreign nor domestic, Christian or Jew nor heathen." To the subjects given by Harris he adds theology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, logic, grammar, rhetoric, and poetry, but excludes history, biography, genealogy, geography, and chronology, except their techni cal parts. A second edition appeared in 1738, fol. 2 vols. 2466 pages, " retouched and amended in a thousand places." A few articles are added and some others enlarged, but he was prevented from doing more because " the booksellers were alarmed with a bill in parliament containing a clause to oblige the publishers of all improved editions of books to print their improvements separately." The bill after passing the Commons was unexpectedly thrown out by the Lords ; but fearing that it might be revived, the booksellers thought it best to retreat though more than twenty sheets had been printed. Five other editions were published in London, 1739 to 1751-2, besides one in Dublin, 1742, all in 2 vols. fol. An Italian translation, Veuezia, 1748-49, 4to, 9 vols., was the first complete Italian encyclopaedia. When Chambers was in France in 1739 he rejected very favourable proposals to publish an edition there dedicated to Louis XV. His work was judiciously, honestly, and carefully done, and long maintained its popularity. But it had many defects and omissions, as he was well aware ; and at his death, 15th May 1740, he had collected and arranged materials for seven new volumes. John Lewis Scott was employed by the booksellers to select such articles as were fit for the press and to supply others. He is said to have done this very efficiently until appointed sub-preceptor to the prince of Wales and Prince Edward. His task was en trusted to Ur (afterwards called Sir John) Hill, who performed it very hastily, and with characteristic carelessness and self- sufficiency, copying freely from his own writings. The Sup plement was published in London, 1753, fol. 2 vols., 3307 pages and 12 plates. As Hill was a botanist, the botanical part, which had been very defective in the Cyclopaedia was the best. Abraham Eees published a revised and enlarged edition, " with the supplement and modern improvements incorporated in one alphabet," London, 1778-88, fol. 2 vols., 5010 pages, 159 plates. It was published in 418 numbers, at 6d. each. Rees says that he has added more than 4400 new articles. At the end he gives an index of articles, classed under 100 heads, numbering about 57,000, and filling 80 pages. The heads, with 39 cross references, are arranged alphabetically. Rees s edition was reprinted, London, 1786-88, and 1789-91, fol. 5 vols., and Dublin, 1787, fol. 4 vols. According to the English custom, all the editions of the Cyclopaedia have no pagination. One of the largest and most comprehensive encyclo paedias was undertaken and in a great measure completed by Johaun Heinrich Zedler, a bookseller of Leipsic, who was born at Breslau 7th January 1706, made a Prussian commerzienrath in 1731, and died at Leipsic in 1760, Grosses vollstdndiges Universal Lexicon Aller Wissenschaften und Kunste welche bishero durch menschlichen Verstand und Witz erfunden und verbessert warden, Halle and Leipzig, 1732-50, fol. 64 vols. 64,309 pages ; and Kotliige Supjjle- mente, ib. 1751-54, vols. i. to iv., A to Caq, 3016 pages. The columns, two in a page, are numbered, varying from 1356 in vol. li. to 2588 in vol. xlix. Each volume has a dedication, with a portrait. The first nine are the emperor, the kings of Prussia and Poland, the empress of Russia, and the kings of England, France, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden. The dedications, of which two are in verse, and all are signed by Zedler, amount to 459 pages. The supplement has no dedications or portraits. The preface to the first volume of the work is by Johann Peter von Ludewig, chancellor of the university of Halle (born 15th August 1690, died 6th September 1743). Nine editors were employed, whom Ludewig compares to the nine muses; and the whole of each subject was entrusted to the same person, that all its parts might be uniformly treated. Carl Giinther Ludovici (born at Leipsic 7th August 1707, public teacher of philosophy there from 1734, died 3d July 1778) edited the work from vol. xix., beginning the letter M, and published in 1739, to the end, and also the supple ment. The work was published by subscription. Johann Heinrich Wolff, an eminent merchant and shop-keeper in Leipsic, born there 29th April 1690, came to Zedler s assistance by advancing the very heavy expenses and becoming answerable for the subscriptions, and spared no cost that the work might be complete. Zedler very truly says, in his preface to vol. xviii., that his Universal Lexicon was a work such as no time and no nation could show, and both in its plan and execution it is much more compre hensive and complete than any previous encyclopaedia. Colleges, says Ludewig, where all sciences are taught and studied, are on that account called universities, and their teaching is called studium imiversale; but the Universal Lexicon contains not only what they teach in theology, jurisprudence, medicine, philosophy, history, mathematics, &c., but also many other things belonging to courts, chanceries, hunting, forests, war and peace, and to artists, artizans, housekeepers, and merchants, not thought of in colleges. Its plan embraces not only history, geography, and biography, but also genealogy, topography, and from vol. xviii., published in 1738, lives of illustrious living persons. Zedler inquires why death alone should make a deserving man capable of having his services arid worthy deeds made known to the world in print. The lives of the dead, he says, are to be found in books, but those of the living are not to be met with anywhere, and would often be more useful if known. In consequence of this preface,
many lives and genealogies were sent to him for publication.