The ARTFL Project

One of the first general encyclopedias to be published in English, Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia (2 vols. published in 1728, with 2 supplement vols. in 1753) served as the primary inspiration for Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie which owed its inception to a French translation of Chambers' work begun in 1743 by John Mills and Gottfried Sellius. The subtitle of the 1728 Edition summarizes the scope of Chambers' project: Cyclopaedia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences: containing the definitions of the terms, and accounts of the things signify'd thereby, in the several arts, both liberal and mechanical, and the several sciences, human and divine: the figures, kinds, properties, productions, preparations, and uses, of things natural and artificial; the rise, progress, and state of things ecclesiastical, civil, military, and commercial: with the several systems, sects, opinions, &c; among philosophers, divines, mathematicians, physicians, antiquaries, criticks, &c: The whole intended as a course of ancient and modern learning.

 

 

NOVEMBER 2018 UPDATE: We are in the process of digitizing the fourth edition (1741) of the Cyclopaedia. The first volume of this new digital edition is now available, and we expect the second volume to be available within the next few months. Unlike the first edition of the Cyclopaedia discussed below, this conversion involves professional data capture of high-quality page image scans taken by the University of Chicago Library.