Main entry:

Yeo, Richard R., 1948-

Title & Author:

Encyclopaedic visions : scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture / Richard Yeo.

Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Description:

xxi, 336 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 284-322) and index.
Introduction: the encyclopaedic tradition -- Part I: 1. Encyclopaedias in the Republic of Letters -- 2. Scientific dictionaries and 'compleat' knowledge -- 3. Containing knowledge -- Part II: 4. From commonplace books to encyclopaedias -- 5. 'The best book in the universe': Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia -- 6. Communicating the arts and sciences -- 7. The Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Scottish Enlightenment -- Part III: 8. Copyright and public knowledge -- 9. Why dedicate an encyclopaedia to a king? -- 10. Editors and experts -- Conclusion.

Summary:

"The eighteenth-century English dictionaries of arts and sciences claimed to contain all knowledge that a person of education should possess. These early encyclopaedias responded to the explosion of information by reducing knowledge to essentials, stressing the need for a coherent account of the sciences, and for some time excluding biography and history. Richard Yeo places these scientific dictionaries in a rich cultural framework of debate that includes the classification of knowledge, the tradition of commonplaces, the Republic of Letters, the Enlightenment public sphere, copyright issues and the specialisation of science. He discusses dilemmas involved in the quest for knowledge to be both organised and readily available, examining assumptions about the organisation, communication and control of knowledge in these works. Elegantly illustrated and accessibly written, Encyclopaedic Visions provides a major contribution to Enlightenment studies, the history of science and the history of ideas in general."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Book review (E-STREAMS)
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0521651913 (hardback)
9780521651912 (hardback)
9780521152921
0521152925

Subject:

Encyclopedias and dictionaries History and criticism.
Science Encyclopedias Early works to 1800.
Science History Encyclopedias History and criticism.
Science History 18th century.
Science and civilization Early works to 1800.
Learning and scholarship History 18th century.
Enlightenment England.
Sciences Encyclopédies Ouvrages avant 1800.
Sciences Histoire Encyclopédies Histoire et critique.
Sciences Histoire 18e siècle.
Sciences et civilisation Ouvrages avant 1800.
Savoir et érudition Histoire 18e siècle.
Siècle des Lumières Angleterre.
Enlightenment (18th-century western movement)
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Enlightenment
Intellectual life
Learning and scholarship
Science
Science and civilization
Encyclopedieën.
Kennis.
Verlichting (cultuurgeschiedenis)
England Intellectual life 18th century.
Angleterre Vie intellectuelle 18e siècle.
England

Form/genre:

encyclopedias.
dictionaries.
Dictionaries
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Early works
Encyclopedias
History
Encyclopédies.
Dictionnaires.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 216911
Call No.: Q124.8 .Y4 2001
Status: Available