Evolution of the Encyclopedia Typography GRPH 223 Spring 2015
By Jessica Dolan
Artistotle 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.
• Greek philosopher • First to use comprehensive information • Known for his theories
Pliny the Elder A.D. 23 to A.D. 79
• Roman naturalist • Wrote Historia Naturalis
Historia Naturalis
Isidore of Seville A.D. 550 to A.D. 636
• He was an important churchman and was well known for his writtings • Etymologies or Origins was the most impactful
Etymologies • Recorded all the information during this time • Carried on to scholars in the Middle Ages
Vincent of Beauvais 1200s
• “French Dominican Friar” • Wrote three sections of Speculum Majus
Speculum Majus • Summarized all the information from this time • Greatest European encyclopedia until 18th century
Roger Bacon 1200s
• Scientist, philosopher, and English scholastic • Most important works: Opus majus, the Opus minor, Opus teritum
Opus Majus • Most important of his writtings • covers all natural science
Brunetto Latini 1200s
• Known for creating the first encylcopedia on language, titled Li Livres Dou Tresor
Li Livres Dou Tresor
Denis Diderot 18th Century
• Most known for his part in creating the EncyclopÊdie
EncylcopĂŠdie
• Also called a “Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts”
More examples of the EncyclopĂŠdie
Encyclopedia Britannica 1791
• Thomas Dobson created the first Ecncylopedia Britannica
Wikipedia Present • Jimmy Wales co-founded Wikipedia
Bibliography Barney, Stephen A., W.J. Lewis, J.A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. http:// pot-pourri.fltr.ucl.ac.be/files/AClassftp/TEXTES/ISIDORUS/Etymologie/B1N8PWGetQy.pdf. This source was great for obvious reasons. It is the first English translation that covers the entire Latin Etymologies. Finding this source was great for my research. It gave me in depth information on how the Etymologies were created. It also told me what the Etymologies actually consisted of as far as information goes. I did not read all of this because if offers translation of all twenty books of the Etymologies. I once again could not find information on what typeface Isidore of Seville used within the text. I had to go to different sources and images to find that information. This source did not really influence my design process. However, it greatly enhanced my understanding of the Etymologies. bio. “Aristotle Biography.” http://www.biography.com/people/aristotle-9188415. I found this biography of Aristotle that provided great information. It told me everything I could possibly need or want to know about him. Although I was able to only use a part of it because of time restrictions, it told me about Aristotle’s early life, his career in teaching, his influence on science at the time, his focuses in philosophy, the main writings he created, and finally, it told me about his death and the legacy he left behind. This biography definitely influenced my thinking towards Aristotle. I honestly didn’t know he was a writer, I thought his main interest was philosophy. It allowed me to understand how his writings had such an influence on the world at the time and how it was the start of the encyclopedia. I could not find anything wrong wit this source, it provided me with all the information I needed for this presentation. Chicago Journals. “Pliny’s Historia naturalis.” http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/224311?uid=3739792&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21106599023603#pa ge_scan_tab_contents. I really liked this source because it provided background information about Pliny’s Historia Naturalis. If I would have enough time to put more information into my presentation, I would have been able to find a pretty good background of information from just this one page out of Historia Naturalis. It would have been nice to have access to more than just one page of the text so that I could have seen what more of the Historia Naturalis is about. It informed my thinking a lot, because it provided background information about Historia Naturalis that I could not find anywhere else. It also would have been better if this section of the text had provided more information on Pliny himself since he did write this. However, for being a source from the internet, and without actually going and finding Historia Naturalis, which would be really hard, I believe it provided adequate information. Encyclopedia Britannica. “Roger Bacon.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48177/Roger-Bacon. The Encyclopedia Britannica gave me a great amount of insight into Roger Bacon’s career. It also told me what all he did besides writing, which I found to be very interesting. This source told me about his early life, his career at the university and also his scientific career and finally his career when he was a friar. It also went on to tell me about his writings. Including all three works: Opus majus, Opus minus, and Opus tertium. It told me about what went into the creation of those three pieces. It would have been helpful if Britannica had provided some images of Roger Bacon or his main writings so that it would make the information more clear and so that I could understand fully what I am being told. I also could not find information on what typeface was used in Opus majus, Opus minus, and Opus tertium.
Encyclopedia Britaannica. “Vincent of Beauvais.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629359/Vincent-Of-Beauvais.
This Encyclopedia Britannica source gave me an expanded view of Vincent of Beauvais’s life, from the information I got from the timeline I utilize. It told me how many books the three sections, historical, Natural, and Doctrinal, consisted of. However, it would have been extremely helpful if the source had given me information on each of the three parts that Vincent of Beauvais wrote. I also wish there would have been images of either Vincent of Beauvais himself, or the three sections that he wrote. It also told me about the part that I did not include in my presentation, which I found interesting as well. It told me about the fourth part Speculum Morale. It told me when it was added in and what it consisted of. I also think it would have been nice when this source talked about the pieces that Beauvais wrote, if they had included information on what typeface he used. Lough, John. Essays on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D’Alembert. London: Oxford University Press, 1968. This particular book, Essays on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D’Alembert, gave me a lot of incite into the Encyclopédie. It told me about the different editions there were of the Encyclopédie. I also found out about pamphlets that were on the Encyclopédie. Within the book I also found several images of the main cover page for the Encyclopédie. This helped me figure out what typeface was used within the Encyclopédie since the book itself did not give any information on what typeface was used to create the document. I learned more about D’Alembert who was one of the other main contributors to its creation. There aren’t really any detriments to the book, I found it very helpful in my research. Besides it not having information about the typeface it used, Essays on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D’Alembert had all the information I needed. Even though it did not have information on the typeface, that did not really matter because it provided several images with the typeface on them. Lough, John. The Encyclopédie. New York: David McKay Company, 1971. This book titled The Encyclopédie told me everything about the Encyclopédie. It told me about its history and how it came about. I also read about what was going on at the time in the world around the time of its creation and also what was happening after it was created. The book also provided me with an image of the Encyclopédie’s main cover page. Although the book itself did not contain information on the typeface that was used in the Encyclopédie, I was able to look at the image provided and figure out what typeface was being used. I honestly can’t find any detriments towards this source at all. I guess the only thing it is lacking it an image of Denis Diderot. However, that is not really relevant since the main focus of the book is on the Encyclopédie itself. Lough, John. The Encyclopédie in Eighteenth-Century England and Other Studies.Oriel Press Limited, 1970. This specific book provided me with a great deal of information on the Encyclopédie itself as well. In The Encyclopédie in Eighteenth England and Other Studies there is an entire chapter dedicated to the Encyclopédie. I learned who the other contributors were to its creation besides just Denis Diderot. I also found out more history around the Encyclopédie and again what was going on while it was being created. It also told me about all the editions that were made, and where they were made. The only detriment that I can think of is that it did not provide any images at all. However, since it was so detailed, I am not sure if that is a major problem. Just through reading the chapter on the Encyclopédie, I was able to understand a whole lot more about it, I did not find myself even wondering what it looked like since I was given so much information. Schargo, Nelly. History in the Encyclopédie. New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. Out of this book I mainly utilized the Introduction part because that is where it told the most about the Encyclopédie and its creators. However, I did read more into the book and it did a very good job on telling me what information the Encyclopédie actually consists of. Since I only used a small portion of this book, it would have been nice to have seen some images, but then again, I don’t think they were entirely necessary. I also could not find information on what typeface was used within the Encyclopédie. Since I could not find that information, an image of the book would have helped me figure that out better. Overall though, this source helped me find out a lot of information that I did not know before I read the book.
Springer Link. “Isidore of Seville.” http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-9729-4_249. This source was great because it gave me background information on Isidore of Seville, and what he was known for. It expanded a little bit off of the information from the timeline I have been basing my work off of. However, since it is just an abstract, it did not go into great detail, which I think would have helped more! It also does not go into detail about his writing of the Etymology. It would have helped more if it had provided specific information on his writings. As stated previously, it also would have been beneficial if there were images of Isidore of Seville or an image of his writings on this source. It did allow me to back up my timeline source, since it provides the same information, just a little more expanded. Now I know that the timeline I am utilizing is correct. Springer Link. “Pliny the Elder.” http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1102. This source on Pliny the Elder provided the information I needed for my presentation. It gave me information on Pliny’s Natural History. This source told me about the information Pliny’s Natural History provides. It also told me how many volumes there were. However, it did not give me information on Pliny the Elder’s life itself. I also could not find information on the typeface that was used in the text itself. I have to go to another source to find that information. It would have been nice if this source provided a picture of Pliny’s Natural History so that I knew what I was going off of. Even though the source gave me enough information to use in my presentation, it would have been nice if it had more detailed information about the Natural History itself, and also information on Pliny the Elder. Top TenReviews Contributor. “The Evolution of Encyclopedia.” http://encyclopedia-review.toptenreviews.com/evolution-of-encyclopedia.html. This site helped me structure my presentation. It allowed me to get a good starting point, and know what I should do further research on. It also provided a nice and clear list of the encyclopedia’s evolution in chronological order, which was hard to find anywhere else. At times I wish it had provided a little bit more information about each step of the encyclopedia, but then I wouldn’t have been as curious to go out and research and see what other information I could find on my topic. It also would have been nice if for every section of the different encyclopedias, the website provided links to pictures of it. For many of these encyclopedia’s, it was very hard to find images of them that were large enough, even images at all sometimes. Even though I was able to research elsewhere and find this information, this source would have been better if it had provided dates for the section on present. To me, present could mean a lot of different years. (If that makes sense) Wikipedia. “Brunetto Latini.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunetto_Latini. This Wikipedia source gave me a great deal of information compared to the timeline I reference. It told me about his life, his writings, including Livres dou Trésor. I was also informed about the Divine Comedy and what that exactly was. I also liked how it gave me an image of Livres dou Tresor. However, it did not provide an image of Brunetto Latini, which does not make sense to me since the article is about Brunetto Latini. I also could not find information on the typeface that was used in Livres dou Tresor. I had to find this out just by studying images of the original text itself. Even though it did tell me about Livres dou Tresor, it would have been helpful if there was even more information on it. Wikipedia. “Denis Diderot.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot. This Wikipedia source on Denis Diderot gave me a great deal of information on him. It provided me with a biography on Denis Diderot, which told me about his life and how he got to become such an important writer. It also told me about his early works and what he created before he contributed to the creation of the Encyclopédie. After that it went on to tell me about the Encylcopédie, how it was created, and how Diderot contributed to it. After that the article told me about Denis Diderot’s other works and what he created after creating his most important piece which was the Encyclopédie. Then I learned about Diderot as a philosopher. I also liked this source because it gave me images of both Diderot and the main page of the Encyclopédie. Once again, a detriment of this source was that it did not provide any information on the typeface used in the Encyclopédie, or even any of his other works.
Wikipedia. “History of the Encyclopedia Britannica.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica. This Wikipedia entry was actually really helpful for me to be able to find out the “History of the Encyclopedia Britannica.” When I tried to go any other place, I seemed to always end up finding websites from Britannica about history, and not the actual history of Britannica. This source told me all of the information I needed to know about Britannica’s history. However, I could not find anything about the typeface used in Britannica. I had to determine that information on my own. It allowed me to understand the background behind the Encyclopedia Britannica so that I understood what it actually was and what it entailed. It allowed me to understand how it was created and elaborated on what the timeline offered. If I had more time I would have included the more in depth information. Once again, it also provided good pictures to go off of for the Britannica, but I did not end up using those images, so that did not really influence my design process. Wikipedia. “Isidore of Seville.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_of_Seville. Wikipedia was a great way to find information on Isidore of Seville and it allowed me to understand who he was and what he did. It built off of what was stated in the timeline I have been using as a guide. It not only told me about Isidore of Seville, but it also went on to tell me about the Etymology and allowed me to understand more about this particular text. I really don’t have anything negative to say about this source. It provided me with all the information that I was looking for and didn’t leave me questioning anything. This source also provided images of what I am researching. This helped me to even further understand exactly what I was reading about in the article. Not pertaining to the information provided in the article, but it would have been nice if this source could have shown me more images of the Etymology because it is sometimes difficult to find images that are clear and are actually from the book itself. Wikipedia. “Jimmy Wales.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales. I used this Wikipedia source to ironically, find information on Wikipedia. This article told me all about Jimmy Wales who is the co-founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The article went on to tell me about his early life and where he got his education. It also told me about his career before he created Wikipedia. Then it told me about the origins of Wikipedia and how it came about. Almost near the end the article also mentioned how Wikipedia is managed and kept going. I also found out about Jimmy Wales’ personal life and his honors and awards he has received. I really found this article to be helpful, I discovered more than enough information on Wikipedia and its creator. The source also gave me plenty of pictures to go off of which was very helpful. However, I did not find any information on what typeface was used for Wikipedia. It said that a lot of different typefaces were used, but for the word WIKIPEDIA I had to figure out what typeface was used on my own. Wikipedia. “Opus Majus.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Majus. I went to Wikipedia to find even more detailed information on Opus Majus since it is Roger Bacon’s most important out of the three sections that he wrote. It told me what information the text covered and how it was divided into seven sections. It then went on to tell me a little bit about each of those seven divisions. I also liked how it gave a picture out of Opus Majus so that I had an idea of what I was reading about in the article. Once again, I could not find any information about the typeface that was being used in Roger Bacon’s texts. Since it is talking about a document, it would make sense to put that information in there. I do believe it would have been helpful to put a little more information in this article about Bacon since he is the creator. They didn’t provide hardly information on him.
Images Wikipedia. “Encyclopedia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia. Huenemanniac. “Encyclopédie.” https://huenemanniac.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/encyclopedie/. Metronimo. “Encyclopédie.” http://www.metronimo.com/fr/bibliotheque/encyclopedie-de-la-musique-et-dictionnaire-du-conservatoire-2/1467.htm. Metronimo. “Encyclopédie.” http://www.metronimo.com/fr/bibliotheque/encyclopedie-de-la-musique-et-dictionnaire-du-conservatoire-2/1747.htm. Metronimo. “Encyclopédie.” http://www.metronimo.com/fr/bibliotheque/encyclopedie-de-la-musique-et-dictionnaire-du-conservatoire-2/2036.htm. Encyclopédie Méthodique (Beta Release). “Encyclopédie Par Ordre De Matieres.” http://artflsrv01.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:4. methodique0712. Playbuzz. “Kanye West or Aristotle? Who Said This Super Smart Quote?” http://www.playbuzz.com/katelynw11/kanye-west-or-aristotle-who-said-this-supersmart-quote. Roger Pearse. “The manuscripts of Pliny the Elder’s ‘Natural History.’” http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2013/06/22/the-manuscripts-of-pliny-the-elders-natural-history/ A Brief History of Natural History. “The Medieval Tradition.” http://net.lib.byu.edu/scm/naturalhistory/medieval.html. Smithsonian Libraries. “Voyages: A Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition.” http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Voyages/all-land-and-sea.htm. e-codices. “Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae.” http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/fmb/cb-0092/115r. Wikimedia Commons. “File: Roger Bacon. Stipple engraving.” http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roger_Bacon._Stipple_engraving._Wellcome_V0000286. jpg. Open Library. “Un fragment inédit de l’Opus tertium de Roger Bacon.” https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15848202W/Un_fragment_in%C3%A9dit_de_l’Opus_ tertium_de_Roger_Bacon. “Bacon, Roger. Opus Majus.” http://www.kanazawa-it.ac.jp/dawn/173301.html. The Return of Native Nordic Fauna. “The article writer’s craft.” http://dolly.jorgensenweb.net/nordicnature/?p=1077. Wikipedia. “Brunetto Latini.” http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunetto_Latini. “Encyclopedia Britannica 2015 Ultimate Edition pour MAC.” http://www.t411.io/torrents/encyclopaedia-britannica-2015-ultimate-edition-pour-mac
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