Disclaimer: The sole purpose of this article is to provide content for the sample encylopaedia. There is no claim to completeness or correctness.

“The world standard in knowledge since 1768”. The Encyclopædia Britannica is the oldest English-language general encyclopaedia and was first published in 1768 in Edinburgh. This major English-language work of reference with editorial offices in Chicago is written by full-time editors and thousands of contributors worldwide.

The Encyclopædia Britannica relies “upon both outside experts and its own editors with various subject-area proficiencies to write its entries. Those entries are then fact-checked, edited, and copyedited by Britannica editors, a process intended to ensure that the articles meet Britannica’s long-held standards for readability and accuracy. Moreover, that same team of editors regularly revise and update existing articles to reflect new developments in those realms of knowledge.” ¹Kent (2020)

History

The first edition was published in three volumes (some 2.500 pages) between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, edited by William Smellie  (1740-95) an Edinburgh printer. It was reprinted in London. The design of the Encyclopedia was novel in that it not only included definitions and short articles on technical terms and other subjects in alphabetical order, but also longer articles, “treatises”, on seleced topics, with cross references between the entries.²https://www.britannica.com [04.12.2020] It thus intended to satisfy readers who were in search for quick references as well as those wishing to study a subject in depth. Some articles were reprints from other publications, others were new content written for the encyclopedia.

With each subsequent edition, the encyclopaedia grew in scope and size, introducing new subjects and recruited eminent contributors, while keeping the general design of articles and treatises. While some editions were mere revisions of preceding editions, others added significant amounts of new content. By 1902–03, when the 10th edition was published, the Encyclopædia Britannica was established as a major indexed work of reference, being acknowledged for its scholarship and literary style. With the 11th edition, the ownership of the work transfered to the United States, and articles became shorter and simpler to “broaden its appeal to the North American market”.³https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/ [04.12.2020] In the 1930s, the Britannica altered its editorial method and adopted a continuous revision policy. Every article was updated at regular intervals; there were no more completely “new editions”, but annual reprints of the encyclopaedia with revisions to a percentage of the articles and also some new content.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II revisions were made slow, and it was not until the mid 1950s that work on the encyclopaedia became substantial: “By Encyclopædia Britannica’s 200th birthday in 1968 the task had been accomplished; the encyclopedia had less old material in it, probably, than at any time in its history.”⁴https://www.britannica.com [04.12.2020] With the 15^th edition in 1974, the encyclopaedia underwent a major structural change: “The new set consisted of 28 volumes in three parts serving different functions: the Micropædia: Ready Reference and Index, Macropædia: Knowledge in Depth, and Propædia: Outline of Knowledge.”⁵ibid. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition.

Encyclopædia Britannica in the digital age

As early as 1990, the encyclopaedia was published on CD-ROM, and in 1994 a first version of the Britannica online was launched. At first, these were meant to supplement the print product, but in 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. announced that future printings would be discontinued and replaced by digital products.⁶Beuth (2012) Today, the Encyclopædia Britannica is accessible worldwide via https://www.britannica.com/.