num_pages: 24
description: The Encyclopaedia Britannica was founded in 1768 in Edinburgh. Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, decided to create an encyclopedia that would serve the new era of scholarship and enlightenment. They formed a "Society of Gentlemen" to publish their new reference work and hired a scholar William Smellie to edit it. It would be arranged alphabetically, "compiled upon a new plan in which the different Sciences and Arts are digested into distinct Treatises or Systems," and its chief virtue was to be, in the edito word, "utility." The first edition of the Britannica was published one section at a time over a three-year period. The three-volume set was completed in 1771, and the printing quickly sold out. More expanded editions followed. The eleventh edition (1910-11) was produced with Cambridge University. The addition of three, and later six supplemental volumes, resulted in the 12th (1921-22) and 13th (1926) editions. Contributors to those editions included Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leon Trotsky, Harry Houdini, H.L. Mencken, and W.E.B. Du Bois. By the time the thoroughly revised 14th edition appeared in 1929, the principal operations of the company had moved to the United States. In 1943 William Benton, a founder of the advertising agency Benton and Bowles and later a U.S. senator, became chairman of the board and publisher. Benton led the company until his death, in 1973. This 23-Volume Set with Index &amp; Atlas of the famous Encyclopaedia Brittanica is the last edition published by William Benton. Since 1768, the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been the world's most famous and authoritative source of information. "When you want to know, Encyclopaedia Britannica is the place to go."
language: English
title: Encyclopaedia Britannica 23-Volume Set with Index & Color Atlas - Encyclopedia
titlecomplete: Encyclopaedia Britannica 23-Volume Set with Index & Color Atlas - Encyclopedia (1973 Edition, Encyclopedia 23-Volume Set with Index & Color Atlas)
genres: Reference
ratings_count: 4
publisher: University of Chicago