School of thought favoring compiling all human knowledge in one source
For the 18th century French movement, see Encyclopédistes.
Natural History, written by Pliny the Elder in the first century, was the first book to be called an encyclopedia. It was highly regarded in the Middle Ages. This profusely illustrated manuscript was produced in the 13th century.
Encyclopedism is an outlook that aims to include a wide range of knowledge in a single work.[1] The term covers both encyclopedias themselves and related genres in which comprehensiveness is a notable feature. The word encyclopedia is a Latinization of the Greek enkýklios paideía, which means all-around education.[2] The encyclopedia is "one of the few generalizing influences in a world of overspecialization. It serves to recall that knowledge has unity," according to Louis Shores, editor of Collier's Encyclopedia. It should not be "a miscellany, but a concentration, a clarification, and a synthesis", according to British writer H. G. Wells.[3]
Besides comprehensiveness, encyclopedic writing is distinguished by its lack of a specific audience or practical application. The author explains facts concisely for the benefit of a reader who will then use the information in a way that the writer does not try to anticipate. Early examples of encyclopedic writing include discussions of agriculture and craft by Roman writers such as Pliny the Elder and Varro – discussions presumably not intended as practical advice to farmers or craftsmen.[4]
The vast majority of classical learning was lost during the Dark Ages. This enhanced the status of encyclopedic works which survived, including those of Aristotle and Pliny. With the development of printing in the 15th century, the range of knowledge available to readers expanded greatly. Encyclopedic writing became both a practical necessity and a clearly distinguished genre. Renaissance encyclopedists were keenly aware of how much classical learning had been lost. They hoped to recover and record knowledge and were anxious to prevent further loss.[5]
In their modern form, encyclopedias consist of alphabetized articles written by teams of specialists. This format was developed in the 18th century by expanding the technical dictionary to include non-technical topics. The Encyclopédie (1751–1772), edited by Diderot and D'Alembert, was a model for many later works. Like Renaissance encyclopedists, Diderot worried about the possible destruction of civilization and selected knowledge he hoped would survive.[6]
^Smiraglia, Richard (2014). The Elements of Knowledge Organization. Cham (Switzerland): Springer.
^"encyclopedia," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.
^H. G. Wells, World Brain.
^Marco Formisano, "Late Latin Encyclopedism: toward a new paradigm for practical knowledge," in Jason König and Gregg Wolf (eds.), Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 197–218: "Roman encyclopaedism and practical knowledge", pp. 199-204. ISBN 9781107038233.
^Blair, Ann, "Revisiting Renaissance Encyclopedism," Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 381-382. ISBN 9781107038233.
^"Encyclopedists", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Encyclopedism is an outlook that aims to include a wide range of knowledge in a single work. The term covers both encyclopedias themselves and related...
encyclopedic novel assumes an almost "anti-creative" function. The illusion of encyclopedism experienced by the reader of such a novel might represent the author's...
Bibliography of encyclopedias Biographical dictionary Encyclopedic knowledge Encyclopedism Fictitious entry History of science and technology Lexicography Library...
hypothesis, Francis Heylighen distinguishes four perspectives: organicism, encyclopedism, emergentism and evolutionary cybernetics. He asserts that these developed...
channel, a TV or radio channel without a particular target audience Encyclopedism, an outlook that aims to include a wide range of knowledge in a single...
"Byzantine Dark Ages". The period is also known as the era of Byzantine encyclopedism, because of the attempts to systematically organize and codify knowledge...
Renaissance Man". Grafton, A, "The World of the Polyhistors: Humanism and Encyclopedism", Central European History, 18: 31–47. (1985). Jaumann, Herbert, "Was...
Inc., 1984), 191-213. Robert Darnton, "Epistemological angst: From encyclopedism to advertising," in Tore Frängsmyr, ed., The structure of knowledge:...
October and November 1937. This lecture promotes the doctrine New Encyclopedism described previously. Wells begins with the observation that the world...
World Affairs 121–2 1946a. The orchestration of the sciences by the encyclopedism of logical empiricism. In: Cohen and. Neurath 1983 1946b. After six...
activity (profession or business) also called "encyclopaedic practice" or "encyclopedism" is the process of assembling encyclopaedias available to the public...
exhaustive coverage of subject matter. Swigger, Ronald T. "Fictional Encyclopedism and the Cognitive Value of Literature." Comparative Literature Studies...
Renaissance Man". Grafton, A, "The World of the Polyhistors: Humanism and Encyclopedism", Central European History, 18: 31–47. (1985). Jaumann, Herbert, "Was...
Wikipedia, a free-content online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians, began with its first edit on 15...
1080/0048721x.2012.681875. S2CID 145185627. Eaton, Mark E. "Religious Studies Encyclopedism: A Recent History." The Reference Librarian (2016): 1-13. Eliade, Mircea...
Franklin-Brown 2012, p. 95. Harris-McCoy, Daniel (2008). Varieties of encyclopedism in the early Roman Empire: Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, Artemidorus (Ph...
both a right of conquest and as an advancement of public education, encyclopedism, and Enlightenment ideals. These seizures redefined the right of conquest...
Ramist influences. Consideration of the orderly majesty of God leads to encyclopedism about the universe and an analogue of a memory system. Problems of Bodin...
the Organization of Knowledge: The Twilight of Seventeenth-Century Encyclopedism” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1983), 4-7. Ermano Armao...
was commissioned by Basil II. Symeon's menologion is a product of the encyclopedism characteristic of the Macedonian Renaissance. He did not merely collect...
which alternatingly saw it as a satirical indictment of humanistic encyclopedism, or a desperate suppression of Burton's anxiety over the immensity of...
partly been anticipated in cataloguing and indexing knowledge and its encyclopedism by Conrad Gesner. The term Ramean tree became standard in logic books...
Franklin-Brown 2012, p. 95. Harris-McCoy, Daniel (2008). Varieties of encyclopedism in the early Roman Empire: Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, Artemidorus (Ph...
to bear out H.G. Wells's proposal for a "world brain". Global brain Encyclopedism Towards A Living Encyclopædia: A Contribution to Mr Wells's New Encyclopædism...
Heinrich Alsted. W. A. Gullick. p. 23. Rudy, Seth (2014). Literature and Encyclopedism in Enlightenment Britain: the Pursuit of Complete Knowledge. Houndmills...
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