Ephraim Chambers

Ephraim Chambers (* around 1680 in Kendal , † May 15, 1740 in Islington (now London )) was an English writer of the Early Enlightenment . He was the editor and, for the most part, the author of one of the first encyclopedic dictionaries of the arts and sciences of the Age of Enlightenment . The popular English Chambers Dictionary is named after this enlightener .

Life

Title by Ephraim Chambers "Cyclopaedia" from 1728

Ephraim Chambers was born in Kendal, Westmorland and attended Heversham Grammar School . From 1714 to 1721 he completed an apprenticeship as a globe maker with John Senex (1678–1740) a cartographer and engraver from London. Chambers drew up the plan for his Cyclopaedia , or an universal dictionary of arts and sciences, which first appeared in 2 volumes in London and excluded geography and history as an apprentice. The Cyclopaedia is based on John Harris ' Lexicon technicum from 1704 and was itself a model and basis for the Encyclopédie created by Diderot and d'Alembert . He published it in 1728; it is considered to be one of the first English-language encyclopedias.

After starting at the Cyclopaedia , he left John Senex and devoted himself entirely to the encyclopedia project. He took up residence at Gray's Inn , where he stayed for the rest of his life.

[...] Chambers is clearly the father of the modern encyclopaedia throughout the world. [...] Chambers's Cyclopaedia is particularly remarkable for its elaborate system of cross-references, and for the broadening of Harris's coverage to include more of the humanities.
( Robert Collison : Encyclopaedias: Their history throughout the ages. London / New York 1966, p. 103)

"[...] Chambers is clearly the worldwide father of the modern encyclopedia. [...] Chambers' Cyclopaedia is particularly noteworthy for its elaborate system of cross-references and its expanded representation of the humanities compared to Harris."

Chambers gained recognition, was made a member of the Royal Society of London , and had three more editions of his book.

He also participated in the Litterary Magazine and in the abbreviated translation of the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences in Paris: Philosophical history and memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris (1742, 5 vols.).

Chambers died in Canonbury House near Islington in 1740. He was buried in the north monastery of Westminster Abbey .

In view of the difficulties which Chambers then had to overcome in the alphabetical compilation of all objects of human knowledge, his merit is not negligible. (Meyers)

Works (selection)

Online edition of the Cyclopaedia: Chamber's Cyclopaedia. digitized and made available online by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center .

literature

The little encyclopedia. Volume 1, Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich 1950, p. 282.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Francis Espinasse: Chambers, Ephraim (1680? –1740). rev. Michael Harris. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004.

personal data
SURNAME	Chambers, Ephraim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English writer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kendal , Cumbria, England
DATE OF DEATH	May 15, 1740
Place of death	Islington , London

[1] Francis Espinasse: Chambers, Ephraim (1680? –1740). rev. Michael Harris. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004.