The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-11-24
ITALY AT LAST
 HAS 35-VOLUME |ENCY CL OPEDIA
COmpilefs Use "Britan= nica" as Model for
 Work Begun in '35
BY FRANCISCO REA United Press Staff Correspondent


 Rome, Nov. 24-(UP)-Italy ha! placed itself on par with the maj or countries of the world by pro- ducing a 35-volume encyclopedia.
 It now has "the best encyclopedia in the world" as it's originator, Sen Giovanni Treccani, characterized it and "a truly monumental work" a. Premier Benito MuSsolini has de Scribed it.
 Strange as it may seem, Italy wa the last to produce a work Of thl kind, although two Italians, Marco Vincenzo Coronelli (170O and Giar Pietro Bergantini Q745) are reputee as the originators of the first mod ern encyclopedia.
 The last volume of the "Enciclo' pedia Italana," the 35th, was pre- sented to Mussolini on the eve o the celebration of the 18th anniver' sary of the Fascist march on Rome The occasion prompted the Italian press to hail the event as one Of th' outstanding contributions of th' Fascist regime to national culture On that occasion newspapers re- called Pope Plus XI's words 1T praise of the encyclopedia:
 "Since presently there is so muct talk about Romanism, this encyclo' pedia is truly Roman work"
 Started In 1885
 The task of organizing the com pilation of the huge "Enciclopedia' was started in 1895, thanks to g contribution of $53,0O0 by Treccani a successful cotton textile manufac- turer of Lombardy, and keen pro- moter of the national learning. He founded special institute for the realization of the plan. Four years later the first volume was published
 The continuation of the work la- ter was undertaken by a noted 1tal- ian publishing house. This, how ever, did not prove successful, ap- parently because of financial diffi- culties. MuSsolini then stepped iI1 and assured the continuation of the undertaking by injecting new blood into it. He ordered consortium to be formed with the object of fi- nancing the work to the end. The consortium, constituted in 1883, n- cluded the Bank of Naples, the Bank of Sicily, the Bank Monte del Paschi di Siena, the National Insur- ance institute and the Government Polygraphic Institute. When the consortium assumed the undertak- ing, the "Enciclopedia" was in its 18th volume.
 Cost Near $2,OOO,OOO
 When the 36th and last volume devoted entirely to index, will be published, the total cost of the 25,- GOO copies of the "Enciclopedia" will run around $2,O0O00O, of which nearly $1,000,000 has been paid tt the compilers.
 The "Enciclopedia" contains 60,. 900 items, 38,00O pages, 60,000 illus. trations in black and white and col orS.
 The 2nd edition will be published in 10 or 15 years.
 Two thousand, five hundred re- search workers have compiled the "Enciclopedia" under the. direction of Sen. Giovanni Gentle, the we'll known scholar and Kantian phil- osopher. Four hundred siXty-three of the compilers, representing forty three countries, were foreigners, each contributing items relating to his own country or countries ruled by it.
 Argentina is represented by four collaborators: Juan P. Ramos, Bue- nos Aires University; Enrique de Gandia and Jose Imbelloni, both ot the Natural History National Mu- scum of Buenos Aires; Riccardo Ro- jas, rector, Buenos Aires University
 Brazil by one: Carlos Magazines de Azeredo, former ambassador tc the Holy See and member of the Academy of Brazil.
 Colombia by one: Antonio Gomez Restrepo, minister to the Quirinal.
 Ireland by four, including Thom- as Bodkin, of the National Gallery and Walter Starkie, of Dublin Uni. versity, both of Dublin.
 British Contributors Lead
 Great Britain has the largest number of contributors with B, in. cluding Charles J. Holmes, former director of the National Gallery London; c. K. Adams, former assist ant of the National Portrait Gal lery, London; John Purves, profes- sor, Edinburgh University; Eric Reg inald Vincent, Oxford University; H. M. flake, director of the Nation. al Portrait Gallery; Kenneth Clark director of the National Gallery Edward Dent, Cambridge Univer. sity; Muriel Clayton, Victoria ano Albert Museum, London; William Axel Hertz, London University; Ar thur Popham, British Museum, Lon- don.
 The United States is represented by 18 contributors, including Ken meth Mckenzie, Princeton Univer. sity; Roland M. Harper, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.; Arthur Livingston, professor, Columbia Uni versity, New York; Griffith Taylor University of Chicago; Michael Ros- tovtzeff, aYle University; Thomas Hunt Morgan, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Cal, and Henry Furst, Library of Congress 
 The compilers have taken the Encyclopedia Britannica" as a mod el in the fulfilment of their task.