The ''English Cyclopaedia: A new dictionary of universal knowledge'' (London, 1854–1862, 4to, 23 vols., 12,117 pages; supplements, 1869–1873, 4 vols., 2858 pages), was published by
Charles Knight, based on the ''
Penny Cyclopaedia
''The Penny Cyclopædia'' published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was a multi-volume encyclopedia edited by George Long and published by Charles Knight alongside the ''Penny Magazine''. Twenty-seven volumes and three supp ...
'', of which he had the copyright. He was assisted by Alexander Ramsay and James Thorne. It was sometimes popularly referred to as ''Knights Encyclopedia''.
It is in four divisions, each alphabetical, and very unequal:
#
Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
(4 volumes and supplement)
#
Natural history (4 volumes and supplement)
#
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
(with 703 lives of living persons; 6 volumes and supplement)
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Arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
and
sciences
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
(8 volumes and supplement)
A supplement in four volumes, one for each section, was published between 1869 and 1873, together with a synoptical index. No further editions of the ''English Cyclopaedia'', however, it served as the basis of the ''
Everyman's Encyclopaedia
''Everyman's Encyclopaedia'' is an encyclopedia published by Joseph Dent from 1913 as part of the Everyman's Library.
The set was descended from the 1850s ''English Cyclopaedia'' of 1854, which in turn was based on the ''Penny Cyclopaedia'' of ...
'' in 1913.
[Walsh, S. Padraig, 1922- ''Anglo-American general encyclopedias: a historical bibliography, 1703-1967'' New York : Bowker, p. 61]
References
*
*
Catalogue of the British Library
External links
* (fulltext via Hathi Trust)
British encyclopedias
English-language encyclopedias
1854 books
19th-century encyclopedias
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