Ensaiklopedia: Difference between revisions

In British usage, the spellings ''encyclopedia'' and ''encyclopaedia'' are both current;<ref>http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?title=21st&query=encyclopedia http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dict&field-12668446=encyclopedia&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact&sortorder=score%2Cname</ref> in American usage, only the former is commonly used.<ref>http://www.bartleby.com/61/97/E0129700.html http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/encyclopaedia</ref> The spelling ''encyclopædia''—with the ''[[æ]]'' [[ligature (typography)|ligature]]—was frequently used in the 19th century and is increasingly rare, although it is retained in product titles such as ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' and others. The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (1989) records ''encyclopædia'' and ''encyclopedia'' as equal alternatives (in that order), and notes the ''æ'' would be obsolete except that it is preserved in works that have Latin titles. ''[[Webster's Dictionary|Webster's Third New International Dictionary]]'' (1961-2002) features ''encyclopedia'' as the main headword and ''encyclopaedia'' as a minor variant. In addition, ''cyclopedia'' and ''cyclopaedia'' are now rarely-used shortened forms of the word originating in the 17th century. {{see also|American and British English spelling differences#Simplification of ae (æ) and oe (œ)}}

The word ''encyclopedia'' comes from the [[Ancient Greek|Classical Greek]] {{polytonic|"ἐνκύκλιos παιδεία"}} (pronounced "enkyklios paideia"), literally, a "[well-]rounded education," meaning "a general knowledge." Though the notion of a compendium of knowledge dates back thousands of years, the term was first used in 1541 in the title of a book by [[Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius]], ''Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia'' (Basel, 1541). The word ''encyclopaedia'' was first used as a noun by the Croatian [[encyclopedist]] [[Paul Skalić|Pavao Skalić]] in the title of his book, ''Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon'' (Encyclopaedia, or Knowledge of the World of Disciplines, Basel, 1559).

To address those needs, an encyclopedia treats each subject in more depth and conveys the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject or [[list of academic disciplines|discipline]], given the overall length of the particular work. An encyclopedia also often includes many [[map]]s and [[illustration]]s, as well as [[bibliography]] and [[statistics]]. Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been researched and written by well-educated, well-informed content experts.

* Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field (the English-language ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' and German ''[[Brockhaus encyclopedia|Brockhaus]]'' are well-known examples). General encyclopedias often contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and [[gazetteer]]s. There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics but from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the ''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]'' or ''[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]''.

* Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopedia of medicine, philosophy, or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the [[target audience]]. (For example, the [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html Medical Encyclopedia] produced by the U.S. [[National Institutes of Health]].)

The [[Historiography of early Islam|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]]. About year 960, the [[Brethren of Purity]] of [[Basra]]<ref>P.D. Wightman (1953), ''The Growth of Scientific Ideas''</ref> were engaged in their [[Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity]]. Notable works include [[Al-Razi|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 [[Asharite]]s, [[al-Tabri]], [[Masudi|al-Masudi]], [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Tabari]]'s ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings]]'', [[Ibn Rustah]], [[al-Athir]], and [[Ibn Khaldun]], whose [[The Muqadimmah|Muqadimmah]] contains cautions regarding trust in written records that remain wholly applicable today. These scholars 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.

The [[Chinese emperor]] [[Yongle]] of the [[Ming Dynasty]] oversaw the compilation of the [[Yongle Encyclopedia]], one of the largest encyclopedias in history, which was completed in 1408 and comprised over 11,000 handwritten volumes, 370 million Chinese characters, of which only about 400 remain today. In the succeeding dynasty, 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, called the [[Siku Quanshu]] which is probably the largest collection of books in the world. 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. Encyclopedic works, both in imitation of Chinese encyclopedias and as independent works of their own origin, have been known to exist in Japan since the ninth century CE.

The English physician and philosopher, Sir [[Thomas Browne]], specifically employed the word ''encyclopaedia'' as early as 1646 in the preface to the reader to describe his ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]'' or ''Vulgar Errors'', a series of refutations of common errors of his age. Browne structured his encyclopaedia upon the time-honoured schemata of the Renaissance, the so-called 'scale of creation' which ascends a hierarchical ladder via the mineral, vegetable, animal, human, planetary and cosmological worlds. Browne's compendium went through no less than five editions, each revised and augmented, the last edition appearing in 1672. ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' found itself upon the bookshelves of many educated European readers for throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries it was translated into the [[France|French]], [[Netherlands|Dutch]] and [[Germany|German]] languages as well as [[Latin]].

[[Ephraim Chambers]] published his ''[[Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences|Cyclopaedia]]'' in 1728. It included a broad scope of subjects, used an alphabetic arrangement, relied on many different contributors and included the innovation of cross-referencing other sections within articles. Chambers has been referred to as the father of the modern encyclopedia for this two-volume work.

A French translation of Chambers' work inspired the ''[[Encyclopédie]]'', perhaps the most famous early encyclopedia, notable for its scope, the quality of some contributions, and its political and cultural impact in the years leading up to the [[French revolution]]. The ''Encyclopédie'' was edited by [[Jean le Rond d'Alembert]] and [[Denis Diderot]] and published in 17 volumes of articles, issued from 1751 to 1765, and 11 volumes of illustrations, issued from 1762 to 1772. Five volumes of supplementary material and a two volume index, supervised by other editors, were issued from 1776 to 1780 by [[Charles Joseph Panckoucke]].

| isbn = 9781400042364}}</ref> The prospectus stated an ambitious goal: the ''Encyclopédie'' was to be a systematic analysis of the "order and interrelations of human knowledge."<ref>Jean le Rond d'Alembert, "Preliminary Discourse," in ''Denis Diderot's The Encyclopédie: Selections'', ed. and trans. Stephen J. Gendzier (1967), cited in Hillmelfarb 2004</ref> Diderot, in his [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;idno=did2222.0000.004;rgn=main;view=text ''Encyclopédie'' article of the same name], went further: "to collect all the knowledge that now lies scattered over the face of the earth, to make known its general structure to the men among we live, and to transmit it to those who will come after us," to make men not only wiser but also "more virtuous and more happy."<ref>Denis Diderot, ''Rameau's Nephew and Other Works,'' trans. and ed. Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen (1956), cited in Himmelfarb 2004</ref>

Realizing the inherent problems with the model of knowledge he had created, Diderot's view of his own success in writing the ''Encyclopédie'' were far from ecstatic. Diderot envisioned the perfect encyclopedia as more than the sum of its parts. In his own article on the encyclopedia, Diderot also wrote, "Were an analytical dictionary of the sciences and arts nothing more than a methodical combination of their elements, I would still ask whom it behooves to fabricate good elements." Diderot viewed the ideal encyclopedia as an index of connections. He realized that all knowledge could never be amassed in one work, but he hoped the relations among subjects could be.

The second-oldest [[Poland|Polish]] encyclopedia — after ''Nowe Ateny'' (The New Athens) by [[Benedykt Chmielowski]] — was published in 1781 by the [[poet]], [[novelist]] and future [[Primate of Poland]], [[Ignacy Krasicki]]. This was the two-volume ''Zbiór potrzebniejszych wiadomości'' (A Collection of Needful Knowledge).

The [[German-language]] ''[[Brockhaus encyclopedia|Conversations-Lexikon]]'' was published at [[Leipzig]] from 1796 to 1808, in 6 volumes. Paralleling other [[18th-century]] encyclopedias, its scope was expanded beyond that of earlier publications, in an effort at comprehensiveness. It was, however, intended not for scholarly use but to provide results of research and discovery in a simple and popular form without extensive detail. This format, a contrast to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', was widely imitated by later [[19th-century]] encyclopedias in Britain, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and other countries. Of the influential late-18th-century and early-19th-century encyclopedias, the ''Conversations-Lexikon'' is perhaps most similar in form to today's encyclopedias.

The second half of the [[20th century]] also saw the publication of several encyclopedias that were notable for synthesizing important topics in specific fields, often by means of new works authored by significant researchers. Such encyclopedias included ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (first published in 1967 and now in its second edition), and ''Elsevier's Handbooks In Economics'' [http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/S04.cws_home/books] series. Encyclopedias of at least one volume in size exist for most if not all [[Academic discipline]]s, including, typically, such narrow topics such as [[bioethics]] and [[African American history]].

By the late 20th century, encyclopedias were being published on [[CD-ROM]]s for use with personal computers. [[Microsoft]]'s ''[[Encarta]]'' was a landmark example, as it had no print version. Articles were supplemented with video and audio files as well as numerous high-quality images. Similar encyclopedias were also being published [[online]], and made available by subscription.

The English Wikipedia became the world's largest encyclopedia in 2004 at the 300,000 article stage <ref>http://linuxreviews.org/news/2004/07/07_3000k/</ref> and by late 2005, Wikipedia had produced over two million articles in more than 80 languages with content licensed under the [[copyleft]] [[GNU Free Documentation License]]. [[As of July 2007]], Wikipedia has over 2.0 million articles in English and well over 7 million combined in over 250 languages.

* Rozenzweig, Roy. "Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past." Journal of American History Volume 93, Number 1 (June, 2006): 117-46. Also available online [http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42 here] from the Center for History and New Media.