Encyclopedic Dictionary - History

History

The encyclopedic dictionary evolved from the dictionary. John Harris subtitled his landmark Lexicon Technicum a "universal English dictionary of Arts and Sciences;" it was the first English-language, alphabetically ordered collection of knowledge.

The 18th-century encyclopedists, in turn, dramatically expanded the depth and, in some cases, substantially revised the organization of the encyclopedic dictionary to create the early major encyclopedias, the French Encyclopédie and later the British Encyclopædia Britannica. However, such comprehensive works were costly and difficult to produce, and to keep current; and the detailed entries were not ideal for some reference uses. The first version of the German Conversations-Lexikon (1796-1808) was just 2,762 pages in six volumes, and while that work was later expanded, its format using numerous, less lengthy entries served as the principal model for many 19th-century encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries.

The principal English-language encyclopaedic dictionary of the nineteenth century was the 7-volume in 14 eponymous work by Robert Hunter (1823-1897), published by Cassell in 1879-88, and reprinted many times up to 1910, including (1895) as the mass-circulation Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Hunter was assisted by zoology author Henry Scherren and a small team of domestic assistants at his house in Loughton. In the USA, the dictionary was reissued with a variety of titles.