Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 May 17

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May 17

English language encyclopedia

I seem to remember coming across a late 19th century English language (Scottish?) encyclopedia adapted from one of the German ones – perhaps Meyers –, with the intention of providing a more accessible alternative to the "scholarly" Britannica. Am I misremembering? Cheers ⌘ 09:44, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

I have on my bookshelf an 1889 eight-volume set of Blackie's Modern Cyclopedia of Universal Information from Blackie & Son of Glasgow, edited by Charles Annandale:

"Little need to be said in preface to this Cyclopedia, the aim in preparing which has been to provide a convenient work of reference for readers of all classes - comprehensive in scope, handy in size, moderate in price, and generally adapted to the needs of the day".

No mention of a German influence though. Alansplodge (talk) 10:30, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

But a better fit would be Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People published in Edinburgh in 1859, which our article says was: "partly based on a translation into English of the 10th edition of the German-language Konversations-Lexikon, which would become the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie". Alansplodge (talk) 10:47, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

It was indeed the The Popular Encyclopedia, also published by Blackie & Son, and also edited by Annandale. Thanks for the pointer in the right direction, Alansplodge. Cheers ⌘ 08:40, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Resolved

 – ⌘ 08:40, 19 May 2021 (UTC)