Encyclopedia

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Encyclopedia. Record of the knowledge of humanity in the format of writings summarized with information from the various branches of knowledge. Due to the amount of topics it deals with, it is presented in one or more volumes, and can lead to an important collection of books . The volumes contain the information divided into articles on each topic that the encyclopedia is intended to cover and are normally arranged alphabetically.

Summary

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  • 1 Etymology
    • 1 History
    • 2 Characteristics of the encyclopedia
    • 3 Types of encyclopedia
  • 2 Related Links
  • 3 Sources

Etymology

The term encyclopedia comes from the Greek enkyklios paideia , which means ” rounded education “, or ” general knowledge .” It is known that for thousands of years man has abridged knowledge.

In 1541 , the term is used in a book by Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius called “Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia”. Later, in 1559 , the Croatian Pavao Skalić uses the word in the book “Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon”. Currently, in Spanish the word encyclopedia is used, while in English, it is usually said encyclopedia, especially in America . In the United Kingdom , it is also named an encyclopedia.

Story

One of the oldest preserved encyclopedic records is the “Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder”, a Roman who lived in the first century after Christ . In the 37-chapter work, he includes topics as varied as natural history , medicine , geography , geology , art and architecture, and many others.

Among other ancient records is the work of Saint Isidore of Seville , etymologies, which he wrote shortly before his death between 627 and 630 after Christ. With 20 books on topics such as grammar , metrics , rhetoric, dialectics , mathematics , religion , medicine , agriculture and many others, it was one of the most used books in education in the Middle Ages .

In the 18th century , the concept of an encyclopedia that is used today was developed, with a general purpose and mass production . The name of Denis Diderot stands out , among several important encyclopedists. They were writers and scientists of that time who made the famous Encyclopédie, which compiled all scientific knowledge to try to see the world from a different perspective from that used by religion and Metaphysics .

In the 20th century , the concept of the encyclopedia became more popular and, in addition, with the new knowledge, numerous works are made. At the end of that century, new encyclopedias were produced on CD-ROM , to be used on computers. The modern Encarta from Microsoft stands out . Today, free encyclopedias also stand out, which, like Wikipedia , allow information to be edited by users from all over the world through the Internet .

In Cuba has created the Cuban Collaborative Encyclopedia EcuRed , in which all agencies of the Cuban State, which has allowed disseminate scientific, historical, sporting and cultural wealth of the participating country .

Encyclopedia features

Among the fundamental characteristics of an encyclopedia, the following can be mentioned:

  • Summary text compared to other works.
  • Because it must contain many topics, the information is presented in a synthetic way.
  • The articles they contain are rather objective, so opinions do not exist.
  • They limit themselves to exposing the corresponding facts.
  • The information displayed is the work of various authors; in fact, there are articles that are made by the work of hundreds of different people .
  • The amount of information for each article is limited according to the total size of the work.
  • The content must be of universal interest, that is, it can be of interest to anyone and not to a particular group.
  • They must maintain interest over time , passing information should not be used. In addition, the organization system is from the general to the concrete, due to the space limit and so that the work is self-sufficient, without the need to search in other texts.

Encyclopedia types

  • Micronet Universal Encyclopedia: In Spanish. The first online general encyclopedia in Spanish.
  • Encyclopedia by fascicles: it is sold in newsstands and there is an urban legend in which someone managed to buy one of these encyclopedias in its entirety.
  • Espasa Encyclopedia, Hispano-American Encyclopedic Dictionary of Literature, Sciences and Arts and the Great Universal Encyclopedic Dictionary; all of Hispanic origin and conceived for American and European use in the 20th century .
  • CiberEnciclopedia Ocean ‘ : General online encyclopedia in Spanish with restricted consultation. Access to its contents is offered with the acquisition of works from the publisher. But it allows free access for a while.
  • Virtualencyclopedia: an encyclopedia that you can read by wasting your money , such as Encarta .
  • Encyclopedia of health: at first it was created by a group to avoid going to the doctor . Later, Manuel Torreiglesias monopolized the monopoly and founded a program called Saber Vivir based on the explanations of said encyclopedia.
  • Necronomicon or book of the dead: funeral and sinister encyclopedia for Emos.
  • Encyclopedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Britannica Online; Oldest English encyclopedia (1768). On March 13, 2012, it was announced that it would no longer be printed and only the online version, which debuted in 1994, would be kept.
  • Kama-sutra, Kamasutra: encyclopedia of comfortable or uncomfortable positions to perform the sexual act.
  • Bible: collection offantastic stories , although poor in illustrations.
  • Brockhaus Encyclopedia (Brockhaus Encyclopädie)– the most comprehensive of the German encyclopedias with 260,000 entries on 17,000 pages.
  • Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Bolshaya Sovietskaya Entsiklopediya)– one of the most extensive publications of knowledge in the Slavic language.
  • Universal Free Encyclopedia in Spanish: a project to develop a free and free encyclopedia in Spanish through the Internet in which everyone can collaborate by developing new articles or expanding existing ones, and participating in the many activities that we have prepared. From Searches you will get an idea of ​​the contents of the Encyclopedia.
  • Treccani Encyclopedia: the largest of Italian origin, which has 35 volumes.
  • ADAM’s Health Illustrated Encyclopedia– Includes more than 4,000 articles about diseases , tests, symptoms , injuries, and surgical procedures. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations.
  • Encyclopaedia Larousse (Grand Larousse) and Encyclopedia Universalis: highly recognized and the first one edited by Larousse, they have been widely accepted throughout the world.

 

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