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The Scottish Enlightenment

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    • James Adams
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    • Alexander Carlyle
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    • James Macpherson
    • James Thomson
    • James Adams (1737-1802)
    • John Ainslie (1745-1828)
    • James Beattie (1735-1803)
    • Hugh Blair (1718-1800)
    • William Brodie, known as Deacon Brodie, (1746-1788)
    • James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714-1799)
    • Alexander Carlyle (1722-1805)
    • James Craig (1739-1795)
    • William Creech (1745-1815)
    • George Drummond (1687-1766)
    • Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto (1722-1777)
    • Adam Ferguson (1723-1816)
    • Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)
    • Sir Archibald Grant (1696-1778)
    • Alexander Geddes (1737-1802)
    • John Home (1722-1808)
    • David Hume (1711-1776)
    • Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
    • Malcolm Laing (1762-1818)
    • Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831)
    • James Macpherson (1736-1796)
    • Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823)
    • Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)
    • William Shaw (1749-1831)
    • Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788)
    • Sir John Sinclair (1754–1835)
    • Adam Smith (1723-1790)
    • James Thomson (1700-1748)
  • Town
    Planning
    • Source 1: A proposal for keeping the streets clean, 1734-5
    • Source 2: Proposals for improving the city of Edinburgh, 1752
    • Source 3: Proposals for improving the city of Edinburgh, 1752
    • Source 4: James Craig’s design for the New Town, 1768
    • Source 5: Map showing the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, 1780
    • Source 6: James Craig’s proposal for improving the eastern approach to the Old Town, 1786
    • Source 7: Description of Edinburgh from the Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-1799
  • Encyclopaedia
    Britannica
    • Source 1: Title page to volume 1 of the first edition.
    • Source 2: Agriculture, volume 1 A-B, page 40
    • Source 3: Agriculture Plate IV, volume 1 A-B, page 41
    • Source 4: Mechanics, volume 1 M-Z, page 38
    • Source 5: Mechanics, volume 1 M-Z, plate CV
    • Source 6: Camelus or Camel, volume 1 A-B, page 13
    • Source 7: Bactrianus or Bactrian Camel, volume 1 A-B, Plate EIX
    • Source 8: Caricature of Andrew Bell and William Smellie by John Kay
  • Scotticisms
    • Source 1 : A list of Scotticisms by David Hume, first printed 1752
    • Source 2 : Lectures on the art of speaking English, 1761
    • Source 3 : A society for promoting the reading and speaking of English, 1761
    • Source 4 : Observations on the Scottish dialect by Sir John Sinclair, 1782
    • Source 5 : Teaching correct English to the young, 1799
    • Source 6 : The richness of the Scots language, 1792
    • Source 7 : In support of the Scots language, 1799
  • Statistical
    Account
    • Source 1: Sir John Sinclair’s description of compiling the ‘Statistical Account’
    • Source 2: Sir John Sinclair’s discussion of the term ‘statistics’
    • Source 3: Part of the report for the Parish of Monymusk
    • Source 4: Part of the report for the Parish of Wick
    • Source 5: Statistical table for the Parish of Culross
    • Source 6: Report for the Parish of East Kilbride
    • Source 7: Report for the Parish of Smailholm
  • Ossian
    • Source 1: Preface to ‘Fragments of ancient poetry’, 1760
    • Source 2: Preface to ‘Fingal’, 1761
    • Source 3: Letter from David Hume, 1763
    • Source 4: Samuel Johnson’s opinion of the poems, 1775
    • Source 5: An enquiry into the authenticity of the poems, 1781
    • Source 6: ‘Poems of Ossian’ edited by Malcolm Laing, 1805
    • Source 7: Highland Society of Scotland report, 1805
  • Clubs and
    Societies
    • Source 1: List of members of the Select Society
    • Source 2: Questions debated by the Select Society
    • Source 3: The aims of the Edinburgh Society
    • Source 4: A description of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, 1754
    • Source 5: Members of the Cape Club
    • Source 6: An account of the Cape Club
    • Source 7: Extract from the Highland Society of London Minute Book, 1784
    • Women and the Enlightenment
  • Resources
    • Gallery
Plate XV in the anatomy section of volume one of the Encyclopaedia Britannica published in 1771.
Plate XV in the anatomy section of volume one of the Encyclopaedia Britannica published in 1771.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Conceived, compiled, printed and published entirely in Edinburgh, the Britannica’s first edition was undertaken at considerable financial risk by three young tradesmen, none of whom had published anything previously. The two principal partners, who would retain the copyright of its first three editions, were printer Colin Macfarquhar (1744-1793) and engraver Andrew Bell (1726-1809).

Macfarquhar, a wigmaker’s son, had just opened his printing firm in 1767. Bell, a baker’s son and an apprentice of Scotland’s leading engraver Richard Cooper, established his reputation as an engraver through pioneering work for ‘Scots Magazine’. There, he met William Smellie (1740-1795), himself a master printer, and editor of the magazine from 1760 to 1765. Smellie agreed to compile the Britannica’s first edition for a fee of £200, more than Diderot received for his efforts editing the ‘Encyclopédie’, but nothing like the approximately £25,000 Bell and Macfarquhar would jointly accrue from the Britannica’s first three editions.

Smellie was uniquely qualified to establish the Britannica ‘brand’. Unlike Bell or Macfarquhar, and probably all the other tradesmen in Edinburgh, he was learned, attending Edinburgh’s High School before studying at the University. Under his editorship, ‘Scots Magazine’ adapted the practices of an encyclopaedia, something Smellie emphasised in introducing the 1762 volume, describing it as “a work calculated to promote knowledge, and inspire the reader with the love of it”.

While Bell and Macfarquhar kept their politics to themselves, Smellie was a vocal proponent of a free press and especially of the need for knowledge to be made accessible to all who sought self-improvement. He opened his preface to the first edition with the assertion that “utility ought to be the principle intention of every publication”. To this day that succinct observation remains the motto of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’, even in its digital form.

The first edition emphasised two themes: modern science and Scottish identity. The articles on anatomy and Scots Law were groundbreaking and controversial. Still, that first Britannica had a less than auspicious beginning. Production costs depended entirely on the sale of subscriptions, for which the novice proprietors were unprepared. Smellie had difficulty meeting deadlines, subscribers complained about the length of some articles (often exceeding 100 pages), and the medical establishment was less than pleased with the Britannica’s unacknowledged circulation of their intellectual property.

In 1771, after the publication of 100 weekly parts and 160 copperplates, the Britannica’s first edition was complete in three volumes but a significant quantity of unbound sheets remained unsold. These would eventually be passed on to London booksellers, where they were misleadingly retailed as ‘London’ editions with the imprints of Edward and Charles Dilly (1773) and John Donaldson (1773, 1775). Smellie supplied a new preface.

The Britannica set the standard for modern encyclopedias and is an enduring product of the Scottish Enlightenment: a compendium of current and practical knowledge made relatively affordable by the efforts of Macfarquhar and Bell and by Smellie’s views on the democratisation of knowledge.

All six volumes of the first and second editions have been digitised and can be viewed on the  Encyclopaedia Britannica section of the Library’s digital gallery.

We are grateful for the charitable donations which enabled us to conserve, digitise and make the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica available online.

 

  • Source 1
    Title page to volume 1 of the first edition.
  • Source 2
    Agriculture, volume 1 A-B, page 40
  • Source 3
    Agriculture Plate IV, volume 1 A-B, page 41
  • Source 4
    Mechanics, volume 1 M-Z, page 38
  • Source 5
    Mechanics, volume 1 M-Z, plate CV
  • Source 6
    Camelus or Camel, volume 1 A-B, page 13
  • Source 7
    Bactrianus or Bactrian Camel, volume 1 A-B, Plate EIX
  • Source 8
    Caricature of Andrew Bell and William Smellie by John Kay
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