ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA - SMELLIE, William; Andrew Bell; & Colin Macfarquhar.

£60,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences compiled upon a new plan. First edition of the most celebrated encyclopaedia in the English language, an enduring achievement of the Scottish Enlightenment. This copy, the primary and preferred Edinburgh issue, contains the complete 160 plates, including the three on midwifery that George III ordered removed from every copy.Drawing on Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1728) and Diderot's Encyclopédie (1752-72), the Britannica aimed to organize its entries more rigorously by subject matter and not by pure alphabetical order. These three volumes consequently include 45 main articles on humanity's principal arts and sciences, 30 supplementary essays, and innumerable smaller entries. The work was compiled by the triumvirate of the editor William Smellie (1740-1795), the engraver Andrew Bell (1726-1809), and the printer Colin Macfarquhar (c. 1745-1793). Bell, whose previous work involved engraving crests on dog collars, was responsible for the full 160 plates. His three on midwifery, depicting foetuses in the womb and during birth, scandalized many readers in polite society.The three volumes sold for the hefty price of £12. In 1773, the Dilly brothers in London brought out a reprint with new title pages.

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