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{{short description|Nineteenth century British encyclopædia}} |
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[[File:Encyclopædia Metropolitana, history title page.png|thumb|A title page from division three (history and biography) of the second edition]] |
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[[File:Snow flakes Harvey meteorology.png|thumb|Snow flakes, engraving from [[George Harvey (FRS)|George Harvey]]'s 1834 article on meteorology]] |
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==Origins== |
==Origins== |
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Initially the project was part of transitional arrangements in 1817 under which [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] moved publisher, from [[John Mathew Gutch]] to Rest Fenner, working with the Rev. Thomas Curtis. Coleridge was offered the role of editor; he wrote the Introduction, which appeared in January 1818, brought out to compete with the fifth edition of the ''[[ |
Initially the project was part of transitional arrangements in 1817 under which [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] moved publisher, from [[John Mathew Gutch]] to [[Rest Fenner]], working with the Rev. Thomas Curtis. Coleridge was offered the role of editor; he wrote the Introduction, which appeared in January 1818, brought out to compete with the fifth edition of the ''[[History of the Encyclopædia Britannica#5th edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' which had appeared in 1817 in 20 volumes. Fenner, however, dropped the publication after five part-volumes.<ref>Richard Holmes, ''Coleridge: Darker Reflections'' (1998), pp. 445–6, 451, 458, 461–2.</ref> |
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The '' |
The ''Encyclopædia Metropolitana'' was revived in 1820 by the intervention of Bishop [[William Howley]], concerned also to compete with the ''Britannica'', in this case to counter its secular tendency. Howley brought in [[William Rowe Lyall]] to take charge.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=17237|title=Lyall, William Rowe|first = G. Martin|last=Murphy}}</ref> Lyall in turn appointed [[Edward Smedley]] as editor.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Smedley, Edward}}</ref> Smedley was succeeded in 1836 by [[Hugh James Rose]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Rose, Hugh James}}</ref> |
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A rival production was the '' |
A rival production was the ''[[London Encyclopaedia (1825)|London Encyclopædia]]'' (22 volumes beginning in 1825 and completed within a few years) of the publisher [[Thomas Tegg]]. Tegg used Thomas Curtis from the original Coleridge project as editor, and proclaimed the fact on the title page. As he explained in the 1829 preface to his work, Tegg had been obstructed by legal moves from the side of the ''Metropolitana'', but went ahead anyway, pleading that compilations such as encyclopedias needed different rules of copyright.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Curtis|title=The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature, and Practical Mechanics, Comprising a Popular View of the Present State of Knowledge. Illustrated by Numerous Engravings, a General Atlas, and Appropriate Diagrams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1xpbM-ebP4C|access-date=20 February 2013|year=1820|publisher=T. Tegg}}</ref> |
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==Plan of the work== |
==Plan of the work== |
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It professed to give sciences and systematic arts entire and in their natural sequence. Coleridge's Introduction was a treatise on method, with fundamental approach<ref>Coleridge, 'The Friend', Essay IV</ref> to emphasize the relations of ideas: |
It professed to give sciences and systematic arts entire and in their natural sequence.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Encyclopaedia |display=Encyclopaedia s.v. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana |volume=9 |page=381 |inline=1}}</ref> Coleridge's Introduction was a treatise on method, with fundamental approach<ref>Coleridge, 'The Friend', Essay IV</ref> to emphasize the relations of ideas: |
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<blockquote> Method, therefore, becomes natural to the mind which has been accustomed to contemplate not things only, or for their own sake alone, but likewise and chiefly the relations of things, either their relations to each other, or to the observer, or to the state and apprehension of the hearers. To enumerate and analyze these relations, with the conditions under which alone they are discoverable, is to teach the science of method.</blockquote> |
<blockquote> Method, therefore, becomes natural to the mind which has been accustomed to contemplate not things only, or for their own sake alone, but likewise and chiefly the relations of things, either their relations to each other, or to the observer, or to the state and apprehension of the hearers. To enumerate and analyze these relations, with the conditions under which alone they are discoverable, is to teach the science of method.</blockquote> |
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Later critics said of the actual plan that, being the proposal of Coleridge, it had at least enough of a poetical character to be eminently |
Later critics said of the actual plan that, being the proposal of Coleridge, it had at least enough of a poetical character to be eminently impractical (''[[Quarterly Review]]'', cxiii, 379); but the treatises by Archbishop [[Richard Whately]], Sir [[John Herschel]], Professors [[Peter Barlow (mathematician)|Peter Barlow]], [[George Peacock (mathematician)|George Peacock]], [[Augustus De Morgan]], and others, were considered excellent.<ref name=EB1911/> |
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==Divisions== |
==Divisions== |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082485247 v.8] (i.e. Mixed Sciences v.6) |
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| ⚫ | *III. History and biography, 5 vols., 4,458 pages, 7 maps, containing biography (135 essays) chronologically arranged (to [[Thomas Aquinas]] in vol. 3), and interspersed with (210) chapters on history (to 1815), as the most philosophical, interesting and natural form (but modern lives were so many that the plan broke down, and a division of biography, to be in 2 vols., was announced but not published);<ref name=EB1911/> |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082485437 v.11] (i.e. History and Biography v.3) |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082485429 v.12] (i.e. History and Biography v.4) |
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| ⚫ | *IV. Miscellaneous and lexicographical, 13 vols., 10,338 pages, 105 plates, including [[geography]], a [[Dictionary of the english language|dictionary of English]] and descriptive natural history.<ref name=EB1911/> An English lexicon, in parts, was supplied by [[Charles Richardson (lexicographer)|Charles Richardson]], from 1818.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Richardson, Charles (1775-1865)}}</ref> |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015057046776 v.16] (i.e. Miscellaneous v.3) |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082485213 v.18] (i.e. Miscellaneous v.5) |
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** [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082485205 v.23] (i.e. Miscellaneous v.10) |
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| ⚫ | *III. History and |
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| ⚫ | *IV. Miscellaneous and lexicographical, 13 vols., 10,338 pages, 105 plates, including geography, a dictionary of English and descriptive natural history. An English lexicon, in parts, was supplied by [[Charles Richardson (lexicographer)|Charles Richardson]], from 1818.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Richardson, Charles (1775-1865)}}</ref> |
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==References== |
==References== |
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*{{1911}} |
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{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=Encyclopaedia%20metropolitana Internet Archive.] Full access: view and download all volumes. |
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* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001461832 Hathitrust.] |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:1845 books]] |
[[Category:1845 books]] |
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[[Category:English-language encyclopedias]] |
[[Category:English-language encyclopedias]] |
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[[Category:British encyclopedias]] |
[[Category:British encyclopedias]] |
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[[Category:19th-century encyclopedias]] |
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[[fr:Encyclopædia Metropolitana]] |
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[[he:אנציקלופדיה מטרופוליטנה]] |
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[[lt:Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]] |
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[[pt:Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]] |
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Latest revision as of 17:30, 1 March 2023
The Encyclopædia Metropolitana was an encyclopedic work published in London, from 1817 to 1845, by part publication. In all it came to quarto, 30 vols., having been issued in 59 parts (22,426 pages, 565 plates).[1]
Origins[edit]
Initially the project was part of transitional arrangements in 1817 under which Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved publisher, from John Mathew Gutch to Rest Fenner, working with the Rev. Thomas Curtis. Coleridge was offered the role of editor; he wrote the Introduction, which appeared in January 1818, brought out to compete with the fifth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica which had appeared in 1817 in 20 volumes. Fenner, however, dropped the publication after five part-volumes.[2]
The Encyclopædia Metropolitana was revived in 1820 by the intervention of Bishop William Howley, concerned also to compete with the Britannica, in this case to counter its secular tendency. Howley brought in William Rowe Lyall to take charge.[3] Lyall in turn appointed Edward Smedley as editor.[4] Smedley was succeeded in 1836 by Hugh James Rose.[5]
A rival production was the London Encyclopædia (22 volumes beginning in 1825 and completed within a few years) of the publisher Thomas Tegg. Tegg used Thomas Curtis from the original Coleridge project as editor, and proclaimed the fact on the title page. As he explained in the 1829 preface to his work, Tegg had been obstructed by legal moves from the side of the Metropolitana, but went ahead anyway, pleading that compilations such as encyclopedias needed different rules of copyright.[6]
Plan of the work[edit]
It professed to give sciences and systematic arts entire and in their natural sequence.[1] Coleridge's Introduction was a treatise on method, with fundamental approach[7] to emphasize the relations of ideas:
Method, therefore, becomes natural to the mind which has been accustomed to contemplate not things only, or for their own sake alone, but likewise and chiefly the relations of things, either their relations to each other, or to the observer, or to the state and apprehension of the hearers. To enumerate and analyze these relations, with the conditions under which alone they are discoverable, is to teach the science of method.
Later critics said of the actual plan that, being the proposal of Coleridge, it had at least enough of a poetical character to be eminently impractical (Quarterly Review, cxiii, 379); but the treatises by Archbishop Richard Whately, Sir John Herschel, Professors Peter Barlow, George Peacock, Augustus De Morgan, and others, were considered excellent.[1]
Divisions[edit]
It is in four divisions, with only the last division being presented in an alphabetical structure:
- I. Pure Sciences, 2 vols., 1,813 pages, 16 plates, 28 treatises, includes grammar, law and theology;
- II. Mixed and Applied Sciences, 6 vols., 5,391 pages, 437 plates, 42 treatises, including fine arts, useful arts, natural history and its application, the medical sciences;[1]
- v.8 (i.e. Mixed Sciences v.6)
- III. History and biography, 5 vols., 4,458 pages, 7 maps, containing biography (135 essays) chronologically arranged (to Thomas Aquinas in vol. 3), and interspersed with (210) chapters on history (to 1815), as the most philosophical, interesting and natural form (but modern lives were so many that the plan broke down, and a division of biography, to be in 2 vols., was announced but not published);[1]
- IV. Miscellaneous and lexicographical, 13 vols., 10,338 pages, 105 plates, including geography, a dictionary of English and descriptive natural history.[1] An English lexicon, in parts, was supplied by Charles Richardson, from 1818.[8]
The plates were issued in three volumes. An index volume, 364 pages, contained about 9,000 articles.
A re-issue in 38 vols. quarto, was announced in 1849. Of a second edition 42 vols. 8vo, 14,744 pages, belonging to divisions i. to iii., were published in 1849–1858.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Encyclopaedia s.v. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 381.
- ^ Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections (1998), pp. 445–6, 451, 458, 461–2.
- ^ Murphy, G. Martin. "Lyall, William Rowe". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17237. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ Thomas Curtis (1820). The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature, and Practical Mechanics, Comprising a Popular View of the Present State of Knowledge. Illustrated by Numerous Engravings, a General Atlas, and Appropriate Diagrams. T. Tegg. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ Coleridge, 'The Friend', Essay IV
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
External links[edit]
- Internet Archive. Full access: view and download all volumes.
- Hathitrust.