{"id":3986,"date":"2026-03-26T11:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=3986"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:10:25","slug":"a-history-of-knowing-encyclopedias-through-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/a-history-of-knowing-encyclopedias-through-the-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"A History of Knowing: Encyclopedias Through the Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the library celebrates Dr\u202fMoses Li\u2019s extraordinarily generous donation of the<\/em> Siku Quanshu\u2014the monumental eighteenth\u2011century compendium of Chinese scholarship\u2014to the McClay Library, Special Collections is delighted to launch the first in a new series of blog posts exploring the history of encyclopaedias and the many ways humanity has sought to capture and codify knowledge. Guest\u2011written by sinologist Dr\u202fAglaia De\u202fAngeli (HAPP), this opening instalment turns to the classical and European traditions that shaped some of the earliest attempts to organise the world on the page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Permanent display by the C.S. Lewis Reading Room. The Siku Quanshu<\/em> is an extensive Chinese Library Collection commission by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in 1772. This monumental work in arranged in four sections: classics, histories, masters and belles-lettres, each bound in the colours of one of the four seasons, for convenient browsing. The collection was donated to the Library by Dr Moses Li.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Encyclopaedia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The word ‘encyclopaedia’ comes from the Greek ‘enkyklios paideia’, meaning ‘all-round instruction’. The term first appeared in its modern sense in Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Encyclopaedia, Septem Tomis Distincta<\/em> (1630), which held a long-standing reputation. Divided into 35 books, it contained 48 synoptical tables and an index. This work stemmed from the Encyclopaedia Cursus Philosophici<\/em> (1608).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Antiquity and the Middle Ages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The concept is derived from Plato’s theory that in order to think better, one must know all. The origins of this classification can be traced back to Aristotle, who divided the sciences into three categories: theoretical (e.g. philosophy, physics and mathematics), practical (e.g. ethics and politics) and poetic\/creative (e.g. the arts). These categories subsequently became the fundamentals of medieval categorisation. In ancient Rome, there was a strong emphasis on the importance of acquiring knowledge to ensure effective performance in one’s professional duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In classical times, the most significant examples were Libri ad Marcum filium<\/em> by Cato (2nd c. BCE), which focused on the practical knowledge of the Roman citizen; Disciplinae<\/em> in vols. 9 by Varro (2nd-1st c. BCE), which was a compendium of literary, philosophical, and technological notions; Naturalis Historia<\/em> in vols. 37 by Pliny the Elder (1st c. CE); and Artes<\/em> by Celso, whose remains are De medicina<\/em>, a compendium on medicine in imperial Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Title Page: The Historie of the World: Commonly called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus<\/em><\/strong>, the early modern English translation of Pliny the Elder\u2019s Natural History<\/em><\/strong> by Philemon Holland<\/strong>, printed in London by Adam Islip<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cover of the Teubner edition of Plinius: Naturalis Historia<\/em>, published in Leipzig as part of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana<\/em>, edited by L. Ian and C. Mayhoff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Title page of the 1766 Glasgow edition of A. Cornelius Celsus: De Re Medica, printed by Gulielmus Bell, with an appended dictionary\u2011style index. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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During the transition period between antiquity and the Middle Ages, in the 5th century CE, the allegorical work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii<\/em> by Marcianus Capella established the liberal arts into seven typologies: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. These were later distinguished as the Trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 7th century, Isidore of Seville compiled the Origines<\/em>, establishing the vocabulary we know today, where each word is accompanied by a definition or etymology and a historical synthesis of literature on the topic. The Suda lexicon<\/em>, a Greek-Byzantine dictionary and encyclopaedia compiled in the 10th century, was instrumental in establishing the model for the modern encyclopaedic dictionary. The glossary was compiled in alphabetical order, with each entry accompanied by historical, geographical and biographical information.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Medieval schema of the Septem Artes Liberales<\/em>, depicting Philosophy enthroned at the center and surrounded by the seven liberal arts\u2014Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy\u2014each personified and arranged in a circular mandala-like form.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Modernity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the advent of the Renaissance and the spread of humanism, culture became more anti-dogmatic and oriented towards specialist branches of knowledge. Therefore, monumental works conceived as syntheses based on universal principles and compiled from an encyclopaedic perspective were less common. Nonetheless, new encyclopaedias were compiled, such as De expetendis et fugiendis rebus<\/em> by Giorgio Valla in 49 volumes, which were edited posthumously by his adopted son Giovanni Pietro Valla and published by Aldo Manuzio in 1501 in Venice. Another example is Commentarii Urbani<\/em> by Raffaele Maffei, published in 1506 and containing 38 volumes of translations and adaptations of medieval works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Francis Bacon, Viscount St Albans. Line Engraving by A. Bannerman, 1784. Wellcome Collection Gallery (2018-03-29) CC 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interest in encyclopaedias increased during the 17th century when the crisis of Aristotelianism and the advancement of the experimental sciences prompted a reorganization of knowledge. In 1620, Francis Bacon’s Instauratio Magna<\/em> became the first encyclopaedia to adopt a three-part structure, categorising knowledge into three sections: external nature, man, and man’s action on nature. This provided encyclopaedists with a comprehensive outline of the scope of human knowledge, acting as a checklist to ensure no fields of thought or endeavour were omitted. Bacon\u2019s model was later used by Diderot. In this context, it is also worth mentioning Francis Bacon’s De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum<\/em> (1623), in which he presented a tripartite classification of knowledge as the ‘tree of science’. Here, he categorised human knowledge into mnemonics, imagination, and reason, ascribing each to a different discipline or notion. We should also mention Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnnaire historique et critique<\/em> (1697), which paved the way for the critical approach of the Enlightenment by demolishing traditional trappings and prejudices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n