Mary Ann Moore, age 8, of Springfield, I11., for her question:
WHO WROTE THE FIRST ENCYCLOPEDIA?
A.Greek philosopher named Aristotle is called the father of the encyclopedists. In the 300s B.C., Aristotle produced what could be called the first encyclopedia when he attempted to bring all existing knowledge together in a series of books.
In Aristotle's books, in addition to using details of all known knowledge, the great philosopher also included many of his own ideas on a wide variety of subjects.
About 100 B.C., a Roman writer named Marcus Terentius Varro made history's next try at putting together an encyclopedia. Varro's work was called "Disciplinae," which means disciplines. It was made up of reports on the arts and sciences and it took up nine volumes.
Unfortunately, there are no copies of either Aristotle's or Varro's works in existence today. But from the writings of later scholars, we know they did exist.
The oldest set of reference books in existence was put together about A.D. 50 by a Roman writer named Pliny the Elder. Called "Historia Naturalis," which means natural history, it contains thousands of facts about animals, plants and minerals,
A first Chinese encyclopedia was compiled about A.D. 200.
A 20 volume encyclopedia was compiled in A.D. 623 by Isidore, the bishop of Seville. European scholars used this collection of encyclopedic facts as a source book for almost 1,000 years.
The first Arabic reference work was the work of a Baghdad scholar named Ibn Qutaiba. His book of historical information came out in the 800s.
In the mid 1200s, A Dominican friar named Vincent of Beauvais put together an encyclopedia that divided material into political history, natural history and academic subjects.
In 1704, a German writer named Sinold von Schutz wrote an encyclopedia called "Hubner," which established the pattern for many later encyclopedias. It contained short articles and included the contributions of many scholars. There were numerous cross references.
Also in 1704, an English theologian named John Harris published his "Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences." This was the first reference work which presented all articles alphabetically, used articles contributed by specialists and included bibliographies.
An English mapmaker named Ephraim Chambers published his "Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary" in 1728. He based his work on Harris' but added elaborate cross references to simplify the search for information.
Chambers' work greatly influenced two French authors, Denis Diderot and Jean D'Alembert, who came up with a 28 volune encyclopedia between 1751 and 1772. Called "Encyclopedie," many historians believe it contributed to the movement that led to the French Revolution.
"Encyclopedie" inspired a group of British scholars who began publishing the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"in 1768. This one established a form that has been followed by many enc s: extensive articles on broad, general topics.