The ''Biblioteca universale sacro-profana'' (1701–07) was an unfinished

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

from the early eighteenth century, published in Italian by the cartographer and Franciscan friar

Vincenzo Coronelli Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (August 16, 1650 – December 9, 1718) was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice. Biogr ...

. Coronelli announced the encyclopedia to his Franciscan colleagues in 1696 and began work on it in 1698. By this time, he had been named Minister General in the Franciscan order. Thanks to his position of leadership, he was initially able to bring tremendous resources to bear on the project, but after he was removed from his position as Minister General in 1704, the encyclopedia fell on hard times and soon came to a halt. The ''Biblioteca universale'' was one of the first universal encyclopedias in a European

vernacular language A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

with entries arranged

alphabetically Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...

. It was planned to contain 45 volumes, but only 7 volumes appeared, reaching the letter ''C''.James L. Fuchs, "Nationality and Knowledge in 18th-century Italy," ''Studies in Eighteenth-century Culture'' 21 (1991): 207-18.

References

External links

Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profana
on Google Books {{Authority control Unfinished books Italian literature 1700s books Italian encyclopedias Italian-language encyclopedias 18th-century encyclopedias