[lit-ideas] PLEASE CIRCULATE (Was: The Encyclopaedia Britannica)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:05:46 EDT
COMING FULL CIRCLE as it drops from Heaven's spherical rim.
Always willing to give credit when credit is 'due', Ritchie writes:
"It should be pointed out that the English were there first. John Harris
published Lexicon technicum in 1704 and the much more famous Ephraim Chambers'
Cyclopaedia appeared in 1728."
Yes, but that Ephraim was perhaps _infamous_, if one quotes from one quote
in the OED, under 'cyclopaedia'. So thought Bowyer:
1738 W. BOWYER in Nichols Lit. Anecd. 18th C. (1812) V. 659
"While the second edition of Chambers's
Cyclopædia was in the press I went to
the author [the aforementioned Ephraim
Chambers, Esq.] and begged leave to
add
a single syllable
to his magnificent work, and that for
Cyclopædia he would write Encyclopædia..
I urged that Vossius had observed in
his book de Vitiis Sermonis that
‘Cyclopædia was used by some authors,
but Encyclopædia by the best’.
(1738) In Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 18th C.
(1812), p. 659.
Note that if it all derives from the Grecian adj. 'egkuklios' (originally,
'en + kuklios') perhaps Chalmers wasn't so deaf as not to hear.
The whole thing amounts to a 'circular for circulation' (cf. the Pope's
encyclicals), and I trust Ritchie is partly right when he talks of the
'attempt
behind the EB' being
"to make two groats"
(or one) seeing that Diderot's thing was selling like 'hot cakes'. Quite an
long-distance analogy if you ask me. I can imagine a lot of people wanting to
read something _French_ (then the 'langue de la connaissance') rather than
anything 'Gothick' -- which included Scots, English, and Danish).
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Encircling the Rim of Wisdom
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] PLEASE CIRCULATE (Was: The Encyclopaedia Britannica)
