11:50am Monday 8th February 2010
As the oldest English-language encyclopaedia still in print publishes its latest edition, Steve Pratt looks at the history of Encyclopaedia Britannica and how the publishers came to terms with online rivals.
BEFORE Google and Wikipedia, there was the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
If you had a question, that was one of the obvious places to seek an answer. And more than 200 years since the first edition was produced in the 18th Century, Britannica is still going strong – both in print and online.
Now the search for knowledge has gone out into the home as the publishers look to find the oldest complete set still in private hands – just as the new 32-volume 2010 edition is published.
Managing director Ian Grant knows that copies from the early 1900s are in existence, but wants to discover if rarer editions from the 1800s are still out there.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, recently voted into the top ten superbrands in the UK, was first published in weekly instalments in 1768.
By the turn of the century, it had grown to 20 volumes.
“It had become highly valued as a family heirloom,” says Grant. “Britannica was often handed down through the generations, so we are sure copies are still likely to be found in attics today.”
Complete sets in good condition are keenly sought by collectors. A 1797 set was recently valued at £8,750.
What’s less well known is the history of the oldest English language encyclopaedia still in print and which has produced 16 editions in its 241-year history. Founders Colin Macfarquhar, Andrew Bell and William Smellie were the first English writers to systemise knowledge and enlighten readers about the latest discoveries in the “arts, science, literature and general information”.
The list of contributors is unrivalled. Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leo Tolstoy, Sir Walter Scott, Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu are among the many writers. The 2010 edition counts golfer Arnold Palmer, skateboarder Tony Hawk and Nasa space scientist Jack Lissauer among its 4,3000 contributors.
The short answer to the question “why has Encyclopaedia Britannica survived for so long?” says Grant is “the values that sit in the brand of confidence for the user.” Basically, people trust the information contained within its pages.
“What people have in mind when they hear the word Britannica is that they can go to it and get good stuff from it,” he says.
“People say, ‘ah, yes, Britannica, we had that as a child. It’s very consistent across countries around the world. The other reason it’s survived is that it went online very early, and we got over the hurdle of knowing what digital publishing and online publishing is all about.
“There are very positive feelings towards the brand. In some countries in the Middle East and Africa there’s a reverence. I think it is partly because it became part of the Empire’s luggage and would certainly have been a colonial distribution originally. It travelled to America in a pirated version in the 19th Century.”
Britannica is now privately owned, having been bought 12 years ago by a Swiss financier.
Some 70 per cent of its operating profits come from the online encyclopaedia, with the print version on the shelves in colleges, universities and libraries around the world. “It’s a very sound business model,” says Grant.
While search engines will point you in the right direction to answer your question, Britannica prides itself on providing articles and information on such diverse subjects – in the 2010 edition – as human genomes, global warming and President Barack Obama.
The work of the 4,000 paid contributors is checked for fact and style by 100 editors. Each editorial team is managed by a subject specialist.
Primary and secondary school versions are produced and it is published in a range of languages including Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
“It has always been a very interesting part in British publishing life. Then Google and Wikipaedia came along, creating a sense of providing information online and Britannica had to participate in that world,” says Grant.
“Britannica is built to respond very well because the benefit we still have is confidence.
Take climate change. In the Britannica books, you get a lot of material. I would say this wouldn’t I, but it works more satisfactorily than Google. You get exactly the thing you’re looking for.”
In the old days, the encyclopaedia was sold door-to-door, as it still is in Eastern Europe and developing countries. Today, Britannica is sold by direct marketing both online and through direct mailing and search engine marketing.
Grant says: “It certainly went through tricky times during the dot.com boom. It was a question of whether it was going to be a portal or a search engine. There was a lot of soul-searching and, for a while, CD was thought to be the answer.”
With the online Britannica refreshed every day, he says publishing it is “like painting the Forth Bridge, in that you never finish”.
THE FIRST EDITION
WHEN Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published, the world was a very different place – and so was the content. Over 100 pages were devoted to medicine, including such conditions as agues, fevers, frenzy and dropsy. The section on surgery began with seven pages on blood-letting.
To cure toothache, one was advised to take “laxatives of manna and cassia dissolved in whey or asses’ milk.
The editors pointed out the dangers of smoking, noting that one user was found on his death to have in his skull “a little black lump, consisting of mere membrances”.
Electricity was advised for curing deafness and St Vitus’ dance.
Cures for flatulence included drinking chamomile tea and blowing smoke from a pipe through the anus.
The article on midwifery caused a storm of protest because the 14 pages were illustrated by explicit engravings and there were immediate demands for their removal.
The solar system was described as having six planets, as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had yet to be discovered.
Homo sapiens was sub-divided into five varieties: the American, the European, the Asiatic, the African and the monstrous.
Lightning, an article claimed, had been known to strike people blind.
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