The ''General Dictionary, Historical and Critical'' was a

biographical dictionary A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people o ...

published from 1734 to 1741 in London in 10 volumes.

Contributors

The dictionary derived from the ''

Dictionnaire historique et critique The ''Dictionnaire Historique et Critique'' (; ) was a French biographical dictionary written by Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), a Huguenot philosopher who lived and published in Rotterdam, in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, after flee ...

'' of

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. He is best known for his '' Historical and Critical Dictionary'', whose publication began in 1697. Many of the more controversial ideas ...

, already translated into English in 1710 by Pierre des Maizeaux as ''An Historical and Critical Dictionary'', but expanded the material with many biographies of English figures, this work being assigned largely to

Thomas Birch Thomas Birch (23 November 17059 January 1766) was an English historian. Life He was the son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker, and was born at Clerkenwell. He preferred study to business but, as his parents were Quakers, he did not go to ...

. The other two main editors were John Peter Bernard, whose efforts led to his admission as a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

, and John Lockman, who undertook a fresh translation of Bayle's work. The publishers were Richard Chandler and Caesar Ward.

Impact

The work has been described as the "first important ancestor" of the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

''.

Notes

External links

All volumes except 5 and 9 at HathitrustVolumes 5, 8 and 10 at Hathitrust
1734 non-fiction books 1734 in England 1730s in London 18th-century encyclopedias 1734 in literature 1734 introductions Book series introduced in the 1730s British biographical dictionaries International biographical dictionaries {{bio-dict-stub