Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture

Richard Yeo (Griffith University, Queensland)

Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
29 March 2001
Pages
358
ISBN
9780521651912

Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture

Richard Yeo (Griffith University, Queensland)

The eighteenth-century English dictionaries of arts and sciences claimed to contain all knowledge that a person of education should possess. These early encyclopaedias responded to the explosion of information by reducing knowledge to essentials, stressing the need for a coherent account of the sciences, and for some time excluding biography and history. Richard Yeo places these scientific dictionaries in a rich cultural framework of debate that includes the arrangement of knowledge, the Republic of Letters, the Enlightenment public sphere, copyright issues, and the specialisation of science. He discusses dilemmas involved in the quest for knowledge to be both organised and readily available, examining assumptions about the organisation, communication, and control of knowledge in these works. Elegantly illustrated and accessibly written, Encyclopaedic Visions provides a major contribution to Enlightenment studies and the history of ideas in general.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 2 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.