Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1

Ephraim Chambers · 1728

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Description

Ephraim Chambers published the first volume of his Cyclopaedia in 1728, a universal dictionary of arts and sciences. Chambers, a London compiler, arranged the knowledge of his age from A to Z for any reader with curiosity. The work opened the age of the encyclopedia in English and made its maker's name a household word.

Volume 1 carries the alphabet through its first great stretch, with articles on trades, sciences, and arts, linked by a web of cross-references. Chambers designed those links so a reader could follow a subject across the whole work, an early paper version of the hyperlink. Diderot's mighty French Encyclopédie began as a plan to translate Chambers. Knowledge thrown open to the public was the eighteenth century's information revolution, and this volume is where it started.

Catalog record

CREATOREphraim Chambers
YEAR1728
COLLECTIONREFERENCE
FORMATTXT
FILE SIZE9318354
LICENSEPublic Domain
RIGHTSPUBLIC DOMAIN
SOURCEInternet Archive

Source: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_cyclopdia-or-an-unive_chambers-ephraim_1728_1

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