[lit-ideas] 12th ed of the Encyclopaedia Britannica
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:15:33 -0700
One of the books I've been reading off and on is Kershaw's two-volume work
on Hitler. I got to the part describing the Anschlus and the preparations
for invading Czechoslovakia and decided I wanted to see a contemporary map;
so I got out my three volume Thirteenth Edition but it wasn't much help.
Then I discovered, much to my embarrassment that I have a "Twelfth Edition"
also. It was published in 1922 and consists of the "eleventh edition and
three new volumes." And following page 28 of volume XXXI "The Second of
the New Volumes" is an excellent (at least for my purposes) map of Europe's
International Frontiers in 1921, reflecting the Treaties of Versailles, St.
Germain, Neuilly, Paris, Trianon, Moscow, Sevres, Rapallo, and Riga.
There was this guy who bought and sold Encyclopaedia Britannicas years ago -
from his garage. I once expressed my admiration for the 11th edition to a
friend who told me about this guy. Yes he did have an eleventh edition, but
it he had to sell it to me as the thirteenth, he said, if memory serves me.
Either he forgot to tell me that the 3 volumes comprising the 12th, were
not necessary to the 13th. Or he may have assumed they were prerequisites
to the 13th , or, more probably, he told me I had to accept the 12th as
well, and I didn't care since I was after all only the 11th , and promptly
forgot.
So, David. Does this now mean I have more Encyclopedia Britannicas than you
do? J Can we count the EB on CD? I've got about 3 of those but have never
been happy with them and have given up using them.
Lawrence
[lit-ideas] Re: Tuesday Hermeneutics (Was: Monday Poem)
* From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:36:39 -0700
My counting was imprecise. I have a reproduction of the first edition, which
is three volumes. I have a complete eleventh and a complete thirteenth
which, as you say, is the eleventh plus three volumes, but bound and typeset
differently. This latest thing I bought was published by the Werner Company
of New York, Akron and Chicago in 1904. It's called "The New American
Supplement to the New Werner Edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica...Twentieth Century Edition." The text is available here:
<http://books.google.com/books?id=SgYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=new>
http://books.google.com/books?id=SgYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=new
+werner+edition+encyclopedia
+britannica&source=web&ots=HFdOhyM0Vc&sig=5lUFBwzAe3Pe6q14c_ncR1mj6Ts#PP
A11,M1
I was tempted by the price and by the wonderful leather binding and an essay
by Robert Louis Stevenson and being away from home, with room in my car's
trunk.
Exactly what it is, I have yet to discover.
I also own a book I can't lay my hand on at the moment, written by someone
who set out to read the whole of Britannica through, starting at "A," and
Harvey Einbinder, "The Myth of Britannica," which is a critique of errors.
This error-finding project so appealed to the original owner of my copy of
Einbinder that he inserted, "Scotchmen" for "Scotsmen" in the following
sentence, "In 1768 the Encyclopedia Britannica was quietly launched in
Endinburgh by two enterprising Scotsmen, Andrew Bell and Colin Macfarquhar."
It is Einbinder's view that the motive for Britannica was not as Monsieur
Speranza suggests, an attempt to mimic Diderot's *intellectual* achievement,
but rather--plus ca change--to make a groat or two by copying something that
seemed to be selling well. Thus an engraver, a printer and William Smellie
cobbled together the first edition. Other writers take a view closer to JLS.
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. Diderot didn't issue his prospectus
until 1750; the first volume came out a year later.
Einbinder says that "Yung Lo Ta Tien," which was compiled at the order of
Ming emperor Yung Lo predates them all by approximately three hundred years.
It's fifteen times larger than Britannica.
If anyone knows what this Werner edition's history is, I'd love to hear.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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