The method of laying a white upon the enamel ground is a matter of individual taste, so far as the medium is concerned. By some, pure distilled water is preferred to any other liquid for mixing the enamel. Otherwise, turpentine and the fat oil of turpentine, as well as spike oil of lavender. The oil mixture takes longer to dry, and thus gives a greater chance for modelling into fine shades than the water. But it has several drawbacks. Firstly, there is the difficulty of drying the oil out—a process which takes some time and increases the risk of cracking in the drying process; and secondly, the enamel is not so fresh and clear after it is fired as when pure water has been employed. Besides there is a great difference in the result; the water involves a quick, decided, direct touch and method, which carries with it its own charm. The oil medium, besides giving an effect of laborious rounded stippled surfaces, is apt partly to reduce the enamel, thus giving it a dull surface. The coloration of the white is comparatively simple and is done by transparent enamels finely ground and evenly spread over the white after the latter has been fused. The only danger to be avoided is that of over-firing, which is produced by too great heat of a prolonged duration of firing, which causes the stannic and arsenious acids in the white to volatilize.
Plique-à-jourenamelling is done in the same way ascloisonnéenamelling, except that the wires or strips of metal which enclose the enamel are not soldered to the metal base, but are soldered to each other only. Then these are simply placed upon a sheet of platinum, copper, silver, gold or hard brass, which, after the enamel is fused and sufficiently annealed and cooled, is easily removed. For small pieces ofplique-à-jourthere is no necessity to apply any metallic base, as the particles of enamel quickly fuse, become viscous, and when drawn out set quite hard. Neither is there any need for annealing, as would be the case in larger work. For an example, see fig. 2.
Commercially there has lately been an activity in enamels such as has never before occurred. This has been the case throughout Europe, Japan and the United States of America. In London there has been a demand for a cheap form of gaudy coloured enamel, fused into sunk spaces of metal obtained by stamping with a steel die; this has been applied to small objectsof cheap jewelry, in the form of brooches, bracelets and the like. There has also been a great demand for enamel watch-cases and small pendants, done mainly by hand, of a better class of work. Many of these have been produced in Birmingham, Berlin, Paris and London. In Paris copies of pictures in black and white enamel, with a little gold paint in the draperies and background, have been manufactured in very large quantities and sometimes of great dimensions. Another curious demand, followed by as astonishing a production, is that of the imitations (a harder name for which is “forgeries”) of old enamels, made with much skill, giving all the technical excellence of the originals, even to the cracks and scratches incidental to age. These are duly signed, and will deceive the most expert. They are copies of enamels by Nardon and Jean Pénicaud, Léonard Limosin, Pierre Raymond, Courtois and others. The same artificers also produce copies of old Chinesecloisonnéandchamplevéenamels, as well as old Battersea enamel snuff-boxes, patch-boxes, and indeed every kind of enamelling formerly practised. It is advisable for the collector never to purchase any piece of enamelling as the work of an old master without having a pedigree extending at least over forty years. From Japan there has been a continuous flow ofcloisonnéenamelled vases, boxes and plates, either entirely covered with enamel or applied in parts. Compared with this enormous output, only a few small pieces of jewelry have come from Jaipur and other towns in India. There has also been a great quantity ofplique-à-jourenamelling manufactured in Russia, Norway and Sweden. And finally, it has been used in an unprecedented manner in large pieces upon iron and copper for purposes of advertisement.
Amongst the chief workers in the modern revival of this art are Claudius Popelin, Alfred Meyer, Paul Grandhomme, Fernand Thesmar, Hubert von Herkomer and Alexander Fisher. The work of Claudius Popelin is characterized by good technical skill, correctness, and a careful copying of the work of the old masters. Consequently it suffers from a lack of invention and individuality. His work was devoted to the rendering of mythological subjects and fanciful portraits of historical people. Alfred Meyer and Grandhomme are both accomplished and careful enamellers; the former is a painter enameller and the author of a book dealing technically with enamelling. Grandhomme paints mythological subjects and portraits in a very tender manner, with considerably more artistic feeling than either Meyer or Popelin. There is a specimen of his work in the Luxemburg Museum. Fernand Thesmar is the great reviver ofplique-à-jourenamelling in France. Specimens of his work are possessed by the art museums throughout Europe, and one is to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. They are principally valued on account of their perfect technical achievement. Lucien Falize was an employer of artists and craftsmen, and to him we are indebted for the production of specimens ofbasse-tailleenamel upon silver and gold, as well as for a book reviewing the revival of the art in France, bearing particularly on the work of Claudius Popelin. Until within recent years there was a clear division between the art and the crafts in the system of producing art objects. The artist was one person and the workman another. It is now acknowledged that the artist must also be the craftsman, especially in the higher branches of enamelling. M. Falize initiated the production of a gold cup which was enamelled in thebasse-taillemanner. The band of figures was designed by Olivier Merson, the painter, and carved by a metal carver and enamelled by an enameller, both able craftsmen employed by M. Falize. Other pieces of enamelling inchamplevéandcloisonnéwere also produced under his supervision and on this system; therefore lacking the one quality which would make them complete as an expression of artistic emotion by the artist’s own hands. M. René Lalique is among the jewellers who have applied enamelling to their work in a peculiarly technically perfect manner. In England, Professor Hubert von Herkomer has produced painted enamels of considerable dimensions, aiming at the execution of pictures in enamel, such as have been generally regarded as peculiar to the province of oil or water-colour painting. Among numerous works is a large shield, into which plaques of enamel are inserted, as well as several portraits, one of which, made in several pieces, is 6 ft. high—a portrait of the emperor William II. of Germany. The present writer rediscovered the making of many enamels, the secrets of which had been jealously guarded. He has worked in all these processes, developing them from the art side, and helping to make enamelling not only a decorative adjunct to metal-work, but raising it to a fine art. His work may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Brussels Museum. Others who have been enamelling with success in various branches, and who have shown individuality in their work, are Mr John Eyre, Mrs Nelson Dawson, Miss Hart.
Literature.—Among older books on enamelling, apart from the works of Neri and Benvenuto Cellini, are J.-P. Ferrand,L’Art du feu, ou de peindre en émail(1721); Labarte,Recherches sur la peinture en émail(Paris, 1856); Marquis de Laborde,Notice des émaux du Louvre(Paris, 1852); Reboulleau,Nouveau manuel complet de la peinture en verre, sur porcelaine et sur émail(ed. by Magnier, Paris, 1866); Claudius Popelin,L’Émail des peintres(Paris, 1866); Emil Molinier,Dictionnaire des émailleurs(1885). Among useful recent books are H. Cunynghame’sArt of Enamelling on Metals(1906); L. Falize,Claudius Popelin et la renaissance des émaux peints; L. Dalpayrat,Limoges Enamels; Alexander Fisher,The Art of Enamelling upon Metal(1906, “The Studio,” London).
Literature.—Among older books on enamelling, apart from the works of Neri and Benvenuto Cellini, are J.-P. Ferrand,L’Art du feu, ou de peindre en émail(1721); Labarte,Recherches sur la peinture en émail(Paris, 1856); Marquis de Laborde,Notice des émaux du Louvre(Paris, 1852); Reboulleau,Nouveau manuel complet de la peinture en verre, sur porcelaine et sur émail(ed. by Magnier, Paris, 1866); Claudius Popelin,L’Émail des peintres(Paris, 1866); Emil Molinier,Dictionnaire des émailleurs(1885). Among useful recent books are H. Cunynghame’sArt of Enamelling on Metals(1906); L. Falize,Claudius Popelin et la renaissance des émaux peints; L. Dalpayrat,Limoges Enamels; Alexander Fisher,The Art of Enamelling upon Metal(1906, “The Studio,” London).
(A. Fi.*)
ENCAENIA,a festival commemorating a dedication, in Greekτὰ ἐγκαίνια(καινός, new), particularly used of the anniversary of the dedication of a church (seeDedication). The term is also used at the university of Oxford of the annual Commemoration, held in June, of founders and benefactors (seeOxford).
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING. The nameencaustic(from the Greek for “burnt in”) is applied to paintings executed with vehicles in which wax is the chief ingredient. The term was appropriately applied to the ancient methods of painting in wax, because these required heat to effect them. Wax may be used as a vehicle for painting without heat being requisite; nevertheless the ancient termencaustichas been retained, and is indiscriminately applied to all methods of painting in wax. The durability of wax, and its power of resisting the effects of the atmosphere, were well known to the Greeks, who used it for the protection of their sculptures. As a vehicle for painting it was commonly employed by them and by the Romans and Egyptians; but in recent times it has met with only a limited application. Of modern encaustic paintings those by Schnorr in the Residenz at Munich are the most important. Modern paintings in wax, in their chromatic range and in their general effect, occupy a middle place between those executed in oil and in fresco. Wax painting is not so easy as oil, but presents fewer technical difficulties than fresco.
Ancient authors often make mention ofencaustic, which, if it had been described by the wordinurere, to burn in, one might have supposed to have been a species of enamel painting. But the expressions “incausto pingere,” “pictura encaustica,” “ceris pingere,” “pictura inurere,” used by Pliny and other ancient writers, make it clear that some other species of painting is meant. Pliny distinguishes three species of encaustic painting. In the first they used a stylus, and painted either on ivory or on polished wood, previously saturated with some certain colour; the point of the stylus or stigma served for this operation, and its broad or blade end cleared off the small filaments which arose from the outlines made by the stylus in the wax preparation. In the second method it appears that the wax colours, being prepared beforehand, and formed into small cylinders for use, were smoothly spread by the spatula after the outlines were determined, and thus the picture was proceeded with and finished. By the side of the painter stood a brazier which was used to heat the spatula and probably the prepared colours. This is the method which was probably used by the painters who decorated the houses of Herculaneum and of Pompeii, as artists practising this method of painting are depicted in the decorations. The third method was by painting by a brush dipped into wax liquefied by heat; the colours so applied attained considerable hardness, and could not be damaged either by the heat of the sun or by the effects of sea-water. It was thus that ships weredecorated; and this kind of encaustic was therefore styled “ship-painting.”
About the year 1749 Count Caylus and J.J. Bachelier, a painter, made some experiments in encaustic painting, and the count undertook to explain an obscure passage in Pliny, supposed to be the following (xxxv. 39):—“Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere quis primus excogitaverit non constat. Quidam Aristidis inventum putant, postea consummatum a Praxitele; sed aliquanto vetustiores encausticae picturae exstitere, ut Polygnoti et Nicanoris et Arcesilai Pariorum. Lysippus quoque Aeginae picturae suae inscripsitἐνέκαυσεν, quod profecto non fecisset nisi encaustica inventa.” There are other passages in Pliny bearing upon this subject, in one of which (xxi. 49) he gives an account of the preparation of “Punica cera.” The nature of this Punic wax, which was the essential ingredient of the ancient painting in encaustic, has not been definitely ascertained. The chevalier Lorgna, who investigated the subject in a small but valuable tract, asserts that thenitronwhich Pliny mentions is not the nitre of the moderns, but thenatronof the ancients, viz. the native salt which is found crystallized in Egypt and other hot countries in sands surrounding lakes of salt water. This substance the Carthaginians, according to Pliny, used in preparing their wax, and hence the name Punic seems to be derived. Lorgna made a number of experiments with this salt, using from three to twenty parts of white melted wax with one of natron. He held the mixture in an iron vessel over a slow fire, stirring it gently with a wooden spatula, till the mass assumed the consistency of butter and the colour of milk. He then removed it from the fire, and put it in the shade in the open air to harden. The wax being cooled liquefied in water, and a milky emulsion resulted from it like that which could be made with the best Venetian soap.
Experiments, it is said, were made with this wax in painting in encaustic in the apartments of the Count Giovanni Battista Gasola by the Italian painter Antonio Paccheri, who dissolved the Punic wax when it was not so much hardened as to require to be “igni resoluta,” as expressed by Pliny, with pure water slightly infused with gum-arabic, instead of sarcocolla, mentioned by Pliny. He afterwards mixed the colours with this wax so liquefied as he would have done with oil, and proceeded to paint in the same manner; nor were the colours seen to run or alter in the least; and the mixture was so flexible that the pencil ran smoother than it would have done with oil. The painting being dry, he treated it with caustic, and rubbed it with linen cloths, by which the colours acquired peculiar vivacity and brightness.
About the year 1755 further experiments were made by Count Caylus and several French artists. One method was to melt wax with oil of turpentine as a vehicle for the colours. It is well known that wax may be dissolved in spirit and used as a medium, but it dries too quickly to allow of perfect blending, and would by the evaporation of the spirit be prejudicial to the artist’s health. Another method suggested about this time, and one which seems to tally very well with Pliny’s description, is the following. Melt the wax with strong solution of salt of tartar, and let the colours be ground up in it. Place the picture when finished before the fire till by degrees the wax melts, swells, and is bloated up upon the picture; the picture is then gradually removed from the fire, and the colours, without being injuriously affected by the operation of the fire, become unalterable, spirits of wine having been burnt upon them without doing the least harm. Count Caylus’s method was different, and much simpler: (1) the cloth or wood designed for the picture is waxed over, by rubbing it simply with a piece of beeswax; (2) the colours are mixed up with pure water; but as these colours will not adhere to the wax, the whole ground must be rubbed over with chalk or whiting before the colour is applied; and (3) when the picture is dry it is put near the fire, whereby the wax is melted and absorbs the colours. It must be allowed that nothing could well be simpler than this process, and it was thought that this kind of painting would be capable of withstanding the weather and of lasting longer than oil painting. This kind of painting has not the gloss of oil painting, so that the picture may be seen in any light, a quality of the very first importance in all methods of mural painting. The colours too, when so secured, are firm, and will bear washing, and have a property which is perhaps more important still, viz. that exposure to smoke and foul vapours merely leaves a deposit on the surface without injuring the work. The “encausto pingendi” of the ancients could not have been enamelling, as the word “inurere,” taken in its rigorous sense, might at first lead one to suppose, nor could it have been painting produced in the same manner as encaustic tiles or encaustic tesserae; but that it must have been something akin to the count’s process would appear from the words of Pliny already quoted, “Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere.”
Werner of Neustadt found the following process very effectual in making wax soluble in water. For each pound of white wax he took twenty-four ounces of potash, which he dissolved in two pints of water, warming it gently. In this ley he boiled the wax, cut intolittlebits, for half an hour, after which he removed it from the fire and allowed it to cool. The wax floated on the surface of the liquor in the form of a white saponaceous matter; and this being triturated with water produced a sort of emulsion, which he called wax milk, or encaustic wax. This preparation may be mixed with all kinds of colours, and consequently can be applied in a single operation.
Mrs Hooker of Rottingdean, at the end of the 18th century, made many experiments to establish a method of painting in wax, and received a gold palette from the Society of Arts for her investigations in this branch of art. Her account is printed in the tenth volume of the Society’s Transactions (1792), under the name of Miss Emma Jane Greenland.
See also Lorgna,Un Discorso sulla cera punica; Pittore Vicenzo Requeno,Saggi sul ristabilimento dell’ antica arte de’ Greci e Romani(Parma, 1787);Phil. Trans. vol. xlix. part 2; Muntz onEncaustic Painting; W. Cave Thomas,Methods of Mural Decoration(London, 1869); Cros and Henry,L’Encaustique, &c. (1884); Donner von Richter,Über Technisches in der Malerei der Alten(1885).
See also Lorgna,Un Discorso sulla cera punica; Pittore Vicenzo Requeno,Saggi sul ristabilimento dell’ antica arte de’ Greci e Romani(Parma, 1787);Phil. Trans. vol. xlix. part 2; Muntz onEncaustic Painting; W. Cave Thomas,Methods of Mural Decoration(London, 1869); Cros and Henry,L’Encaustique, &c. (1884); Donner von Richter,Über Technisches in der Malerei der Alten(1885).
(W. C. T.)
ENCEINTE(Lat.in, within,cinctus, girdled; to be distinguished from the word meaning “pregnant,” fromin, not, andcinctus,i.e.with girdle loosened), a French term used technically in fortification for the inner ring of fortifications surrounding a town. Strictly the term was applied to the continuous line of bastions and curtains forming the “body of the place,” this last expression being often used as synonymous withenceinte. The outworks, however, close to the enceinte were not considered as forming part of it. In modern fortification the enceinte is usually simply the innermost continuous line of fortifications. In architecture generally an enceinte is the close or precinct of a cathedral, abbey, castle, &c.
ENCINA, JUAN DEL(1469-c.1533), often called the founder of the Spanish drama, was born in 1469 near Salamanca probably at Encinas. On leaving the university of Salamanca he became a member of the household of the second duke of Alva. In 1492 the poet entertained his patron with a dramatic piece, theTriunfo de la fama, written to commemorate the fall of Granada. In 1496 he published hisCancionero, a collection of dramatic and lyrical poems. Some years afterwards he visited Rome, attracted the attention of Alexander VI. by his skill in music, and was appointed choirmaster. About 1518 Encina took orders, and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he said his first mass. Since 1509 he had held a lay canonry at Malaga; in 1519 he was appointed prior of Leon and is said to have died at Salamanca about 1533. HisCancionerois preceded by a prose treatise (Arte de trobar) on the condition of the poetic art in Spain. His fourteen dramatic pieces mark the transition from the purely ecclesiastical to the secular stage. TheAucto del Repelónand theÉgloga de Filenodramatize the adventures of shepherds; the latter, likePlácida y Vitoriano, is strongly influenced by theCelestina. The intrinsic interest of Encina’s plays is slight, but they are important from the historical point of view, for the lay pieces form a new departure, and the devout eclogues prepare the way for theautosof the 17th century. Moreover, Encina’slyrical poems are remarkable for their intense sincerity and devout grace.
Bibliography.—Teatro completo de Juan del Encina(Madrid, 1893), edited by F. Asenjo Barbieri;Cancionero musical de los siglos XV y XVI(Madrid, 1894), edited by F. Asenjo Barbieri; R. Mitjana,Sobre Juan del Encina, músico y poeta(Málaga, 1895); M. Menendez y Pelayo,Antologia depoetas liricos castellanos(Madrid, 1890-1903), vol. vii.
Bibliography.—Teatro completo de Juan del Encina(Madrid, 1893), edited by F. Asenjo Barbieri;Cancionero musical de los siglos XV y XVI(Madrid, 1894), edited by F. Asenjo Barbieri; R. Mitjana,Sobre Juan del Encina, músico y poeta(Málaga, 1895); M. Menendez y Pelayo,Antologia depoetas liricos castellanos(Madrid, 1890-1903), vol. vii.
ENCKE, JOHANN FRANZ(1791-1865), German astronomer, was born at Hamburg on the 23rd of September 1791. Matriculating at the university of Göttingen in 1811, he began by devoting himself to astronomy under Carl Friedrich Gauss; but he enlisted in the Hanseatic Legion for the campaign of 1813-14, and became lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian service in 1815. Having returned to Göttingen in 1816, he was at once appointed by Benhardt von Lindenau his assistant in the observatory of Seeberg near Gotha. There he completed his investigation of the comet of 1680, for which the Cotta prize was awarded to him in 1817; he correctly assigned a period of 71 years to the comet of 1812; and discovered the swift circulation of the remarkable comet which bears his name (see Comet). Eight masterly treatises on its movements were published by him in the BerlinAbhandlungen(1829-1859). From a fresh discussion of the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 he deduced (1822-1824) a solar parallax of 8″.57, long accepted as authoritative. In 1822 he became director of the Seeberg observatory, and in 1825 was promoted to a corresponding position at Berlin, where a new observatory, built under his superintendence, was inaugurated in 1835. He directed the preparation of the star-maps of the Berlin academy 1830-1859, edited from 1830 and greatly improved theAstronomisches Jahrbuch, and issued four volumes of theAstronomische Beobachtungenof the Berlin observatory (1840-1857). Much labour was bestowed by him upon facilitating the computation of the movements of the asteroids. With this end in view he expounded to the Berlin academy in 1849 a mode of determining an elliptic orbit from three observations, and communicated to that body in 1851 a new method of calculating planetary perturbations by means of rectangular co-ordinates (republished in W. Ostwald’sKlassiker der exacten Wissenschaften, No. 141, 1903). Encke visited England in 1840. Incipient brain-disease compelled him to withdraw from official life in November 1863, and he died at Spandau on the 26th of August 1865. He contributed extensively to the periodical literature of astronomy, and was twice, in 1823 and 1830, the recipient of the Royal Astronomical Society’s gold medal.
SeeJohann Franz Encke, sein Leben und Wirken, von Dr C. Bruhns (Leipzig, 1869), to which a list of his writings is appended. Also,Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, xxvi. 129;V.J.S. Astr. Gesellschaft, iv. 227; Berlin.Abhandlungen(1866), i., G. Hagen;Sitzungsberichte, Munich Acad. (1866), i. p. 395, &c.
SeeJohann Franz Encke, sein Leben und Wirken, von Dr C. Bruhns (Leipzig, 1869), to which a list of his writings is appended. Also,Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, xxvi. 129;V.J.S. Astr. Gesellschaft, iv. 227; Berlin.Abhandlungen(1866), i., G. Hagen;Sitzungsberichte, Munich Acad. (1866), i. p. 395, &c.
(A. M. C.)
ENCLAVE(a French word fromenclaver, to enclose), a term signifying a country or, more commonly, an outlying portion of a country, entirely surrounded by the territories of a foreign or other power, such as the detached portions of Prussia, Saxony, &c, enclosed in the Thuringian States. (From the point of view of the states possessing such detached portions of territory these become “exclaves.”) “Enclave” is, however, generally used in a looser sense to describe a colony or other territory of a state, which, while possessing a seaboard, is entirely surrounded landward by the possession of some other power; or, if inland territory, nearly though not entirely so enclosed,e.g.the Lado Enclave in equatorial Africa.
ENCOIGNURE,in furniture, literally the angle, or return, formed by the junction of two walls. The word is now chiefly used to designate a small armoire, commode, cabinet or cupboard made to fit a corner; achaise encoignureis called in English a three-cornered chair. In its origin the thing, like the word, is French, and the delightful Louis Quinze or Louis Seizeencoignurein lacquer or in mahogany elaborately mounted in gilded bronze is not the least alluring piece of the great period of French furniture. It was made in a vast variety of forms so far as the front was concerned; in other respects it was strictly limited by its destination. As a rule these delicate and dainty receptacles were in pairs and placed in opposite angles; more often than not the top was formed of a slab of coloured marble.
ENCYCLICAL(from Late Lat.encyclicus, forencyclius= Gr.ἐγκύκλιος, fromἐνandκύκλος, “a circle”), an ecclesiastical epistle intended for general circulation, now almost exclusively used of such letters issued by the pope. The formsencyclicaandencyclicare sometimes, but more rarely, used. The old adjectival use of the word in the sense of “general” (encircling) is now obsolete, though it survives in the term “encyclopaedia.”
ENCYCLOPAEDIA. The Greeks seem to have understood by encyclopaedia (ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, orἐγκύκλιος παιδεία) instruction in the whole circle (ἐν κυκλῷ) or complete system of learning—education in arts and sciences. Thus Pliny, in the preface to hisNatural History, says that his book treated of all the subjects of the encyclopaedia of the Greeks, “Jam omnia attingenda quae Graeciτῆς ἐγκυκλοπαιδείαςvocant.” Quintilian (Inst. Orat. i. 10) directs that before boys are placed under the rhetorician they should be instructed in the other arts, “ut efficiatur orbis ille doctrinae quam Graeciἐγκυκλοπαιδείανvocant.” Galen (De victus ratione in morbis acutis, c. 11) speaks of those who are not educatedἐν τῇ ἐγκυκλοπαιδείᾳ. In these passages of Pliny and Quintilian, however, from one or both of which the modern use of the word seems to have been taken,ἐγκύκλιος παιδείαis now read, and this seems to have been the usual expression. Vitruvius (lib. vi. praef.) calls the encyclios orἐγκύκλιος παιδείαof the Greeks “doctrinarum omnium disciplina,” instruction in all branches of learning. Strabo (lib. iv. cap. 10) speaks of philosophyκαὶ τὴν ἄλλην παιδείαν ἐγκύκλιον. Tzetzes (Chiliades, xi. 527), quoting from Porphyry’sLives of the Philosophers, says thatἐγκύκλια μαθήματαwas the circle of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and the four arts under it, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. Zonaras explains it as grammar, poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics and simply every art and science (ἁπλῶς πᾶσα τέχνη καὶ ἐπιστήμη), because sophists go through them as through a circle. The idea seems to be a complete course of instruction in all parts of knowledge. An epic poem was called cyclic when it contained the whole mythology; and among physiciansκύκλῳ θεραπεύειν,cyclo curare(Vegetius,De arte veterinaria, ii. 5, 6), meant a cure effected by a regular and prescribed course of diet and medicine (see Wower,De polymathia, c. 24, § 14).
The word encyclopaedia was probably first used in English by Sir Thomas Elyot. “In an oratour is required to be a heape of all maner of lernyng: whiche of some is called the worlde of science, of other the circle of doctrine, whiche is in one worde of greke Encyclopedia” (The Governour, bk. i. chap. xiii.). In his Latin dictionary, 1538, he explains “Encyclios et Encyclia, the cykle or course of all doctrines,” and “Encyclopedia, that lernynge whiche comprehendeth all lyberall science and studies.” The term does not seem to have been used as the title of a book by the ancients or in the middle ages. The edition of the works of Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius, printed at Basel in 1541, is called on the title-pageLucubrationes vel potius absolutissimaκυκλοπαιδεια. Paulus Scalichius de Lika, an Hungarian count, wroteEncyclopaediae seu orbis disciplinarum epistemon(Basileae, 1599, 4to). Alsted published in 1608Encyclopaedia cursus philosophici, and afterwards expanded this into his great work, noticed below, calling it without any limitationEncyclopaedia, because it treats of everything that can be learned by man in this life. This is now the most usual sense in which the word encyclopaedia is used—a book treating of all the various kinds of knowledge. The form “cyclopaedia” is not merely without any appearance of classical authority, but is etymologically less definite, complete and correct. For as Cyropaedia means “the instruction of Cyrus,” so cyclopaedia may mean “instruction of a circle.” Vossius says, “Cyclopaedia is sometimes found, but the best writers say encyclopaedia” (De vitiis sermonis, 1645, p. 402). Gesner says, “κύκλοςestcirculus, quae figura est simplicissima et perfectissima simul: nam incipi potest ubicunque in illa et ubicunque cohaeret.Cyclopaediaitaque significat omnem doctrinarum scientiam interse cohaerere;Encyclopaediaest institutio in illo circulo.” (Isagoge, 1774, i. 40).
In a more restricted sense, encyclopaedia means a system or classification of the various branches of knowledge, a subject on which many books have been published, especially in Germany, as Schmid’sAllgemeine Encyklopädie und Methodologie der Wissenschaften(Jena, 1810, 4to, 241 pages). In this sense theNovum Organumof Bacon has often been called an encyclopaedia. But it is “a grammar only of the sciences: a cyclopaedia is not a grammar, but a dictionary; and to confuse the meanings of grammar and dictionary is to lose the benefit of a distinction which it is fortunate that terms have been coined to convey” (Quarterly Review, cxiii. 354). Fortunius Licetus, an Italian physician, entitled several of his dissertations on Roman altars and other antiquities encyclopaedias (as, for instance,Encyclopaedia ad. Aram mysticam Nonarii,Pataviae, 1631, 4to), because in composing them he borrowed the aid of all the sciences. TheEncyclopaedia moralisof Marcellinus de Pise (Paris, 1646, fol., 4 vols.) is a series of sermons. Encyclopaedia is often used to mean a book which is, or professes to be, a complete or very full collection or treatise relating to some particular subject, as Blaine’s work,The Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports(London, 1852);The Encyclopaedia of Wit(London, 1803);The Vocal Encyclopaedia(London, 1807, 16mo), a collection of songs, catches, &c. The word is frequently used for an alphabetical dictionary treating fully of some science or subject, as Murray,Encyclopaedia of Geography(London, 1834); Lefebvre Laboulaye,Encyclopédie technologique: Dictionnaire des arts et manufactures(Paris, 1845-1847). Whether under the name of “dictionary” or “encyclopaedia” large numbers of this class of reference-work have been published. These are essentially encyclopaedic, beingsubject booksand notword-books. The important books of this character are referred to in the articles dealing with the respective subjects, but the following may be mentioned here: theJewish Encyclopedia, in 12 vols. (1901), a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times; theEncyclopaedia of Sport, 2 vols. (1897-1898); Holtzendorff’sEncyklopädie der Rechtswissenschaft(1870; an edition in 2 vols., 1904); theDictionary of Political Economy, edited by R.H. Inglis Palgrave, 3 vols. (1894; reprinted 1901); the Encyclopaedia Biblica, edited by T.K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, 4 vols. (1899-1903); theDictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, 4 vols., with a supplementary volume (1904); an interesting series is theRépertoire général du commerce, dealing with the foreign trade of France, of which one part, theEncyclopaedia of Trade between the United States of America and France, with a preface by M. Gabriel Hanotaux, appeared, in French and English, in 1904.
The great Chinese encyclopaedias are referred to in the article onChinese Literature. It will be sufficient to mention here theWên hien t’ung k’ao, compiled by Ma Twa-lin in the 14th century, the encyclopaedia ordered to be compiled by the Emperor Yung-loh in the 15th century, and theKu Kin t‘u shu thi ch‘êngprepared for the Emperor K‘ang-hi (d. 1721), in 5020 volumes. A copy of this enormous work, bound in some 700 volumes, is in the British Museum.
The most ancient encyclopaedia extant is Pliny’sNatural Historyin 37 books (including the preface) and 2493 chapters, which may be thus described generally:—book 1, preface; book 2, cosmography, astronomy and meteorology; books 3 to 6, geography; books 7 to 11, zoology, including man, and the invention of the arts; books 12 to 19, botany; books 20 to 32, medicines, vegetable and animal remedies, medical authors and magic; books 33 to 37, metals, fine arts, mineralogy and mineral remedies. Pliny, who diedA.D.79, was not a naturalist, a physician or an artist, and collected his work in his leisure intervals while engaged in public affairs. He says it contains 20,000 facts (too small a number by half, says Lemaire), collected from 2000 books by 100 authors. Hardouin has given a list of 464 authors quoted by him. His work was a very high authority in the middle ages, and 43 editions of it were printed before 1536.
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella, an African, wrote (early in the 5th cent.), in verse and prose, a sort of encyclopaedia, which is important from having been regarded in the middle ages as a model storehouse of learning, and used in the schools, where the scholars had to learn the verses by heart, as a text-book of high-class education in the arts. It is sometimes entitledSatyra, orSatyricon, but is usually known asDe nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, though this title is sometimes confined to the first two books, a rather confused allegory ending with the apotheosis of Philologia and the celebration of her marriage in the milky way, where Apollo presents to her the seven liberal arts, who, in the succeeding seven books, describe their respective branches of knowledge, namely, grammar, dialectics (divided into metaphysics and logic), rhetoric, geometry (geography, with some single geometrical propositions), arithmetic (chiefly the properties of numbers), astronomy and music (including poetry). The style is that of an African of the 5th century, full of grandiloquence, metaphors and strange words. He seldom mentions his authorities, and sometimes quotes authors whom he does not even seem to have read. His work was frequently copied in the middle ages by ignorant transcribers, and was eight times printed from 1499 to 1599. The best annotated edition is by Kopp (Frankfort, 1836, 4to), and the most convenient and the best text is that of Eysserhardt (Lipsiae, 1866, 8vo).
Isidore, bishop of Seville from 600 to 630, wroteEtymologiarum libri XX. (often also entitled hisOrigines) at the request of his friend Braulio, bishop of Saragossa, who after Isidore’s death divided the work into books, as it was left unfinished, and divided only into titles.
The tenth book is an alphabet of 625 Latin words, not belonging to his other subjects, with their explanations as known to him, and often with their etymologies, frequently very absurd. The other books contain 448 chapters, and are:—1, grammar (Latin); 2, rhetoric and dialectics; 3, the four mathematical disciplines—arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy; 4, medicine; 5, laws and times (chronology), with a short chronicle ending in 627; 6, ecclesiastical books and offices; 7, God, angels and the orders of the faithful; 8, the church and sects; 9, languages, society and relationships; 11, man and portents; 12, animals, in eight classes, namely, pecora et jumenta, beasts, small animals (including spiders, crickets and ants), serpents, worms, fishes, birds and small winged creatures, chiefly insects; 13, the world and its parts; 14, the earth and its parts, containing chapters on Asia, Europe and Libya, that is, Africa; 15, buildings, fields and their measures; 16, stones (of which one is echo) and metals; 17, de rebus rusticis; 18, war and games; 19, ships, buildings and garments; 20, provisions, domestic and rustic instruments.
The tenth book is an alphabet of 625 Latin words, not belonging to his other subjects, with their explanations as known to him, and often with their etymologies, frequently very absurd. The other books contain 448 chapters, and are:—1, grammar (Latin); 2, rhetoric and dialectics; 3, the four mathematical disciplines—arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy; 4, medicine; 5, laws and times (chronology), with a short chronicle ending in 627; 6, ecclesiastical books and offices; 7, God, angels and the orders of the faithful; 8, the church and sects; 9, languages, society and relationships; 11, man and portents; 12, animals, in eight classes, namely, pecora et jumenta, beasts, small animals (including spiders, crickets and ants), serpents, worms, fishes, birds and small winged creatures, chiefly insects; 13, the world and its parts; 14, the earth and its parts, containing chapters on Asia, Europe and Libya, that is, Africa; 15, buildings, fields and their measures; 16, stones (of which one is echo) and metals; 17, de rebus rusticis; 18, war and games; 19, ships, buildings and garments; 20, provisions, domestic and rustic instruments.
Isidore appears to have known Hebrew and Greek, and to have been familiar with the Latin classical poets, but he is a mere collector, and his derivations given all through the work are not unfrequently absurd, and, unless when very obvious, will not bear criticism. He seldom mentions his authorities except when he quotes the poets or historians. Yet his work was a great one for the time, and for many centuries was a much valued authority and a rich source of material for other works, and he had a high reputation for learning both in his own time and in subsequent ages. HisEtymologieswere often imitated, quoted and copied. MSS. are very numerous: Antonio (whose editor, Bayer, saw nearly 40) says, “plures passimque reperiuntur in bibliothecarum angulis.” This work was printed nine times before 1529.
Hrabanus Maurus, whose family name was Magnentius, was educated in the abbey of Fulda, ordained deacon in 802 (“Annales Francorum” in Bouquet,Historiens de la France, v. 66), sent to the school of St Martin of Tours, then directed by Alcuin, where he seems to have learned Greek, and is said by Trithemius to have been taught Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldee by Theophilus an Ephesian. In hisCommentaries on Joshua(lib. ii. c. 5) he speaks of having resided at Sidon. He returned to Fulda and taught the school there. He became abbot of Fulda in 822, resigned in April 842, was ordained archbishop of Mainz on the 26th of July 847, and died on the 4th of February 856. He compiled an encyclopaediaDe universo(also called in some MSS.De universali natura, De natura rerum,andDe origine rerum) in 22 books and 325 chapters. It is chiefly a rearrangement ofIsidore’sEtymologies, omitting the first four books, half of the fifth and the tenth (the seven liberal arts, law, medicine and the alphabet of words), and copying the rest, beginning with the seventh book, verbally, though with great omissions, and adding (according to Ritter,Geschichte der Philosophie, vii. 193, from Alcuin, Augustine or some other accessible source) the meanings given in the Bible to the subject matter of the chapter; while things not mentioned in Scripture, especially such as belong to classical antiquity, are omitted, so that his work seems to be formed of two alternating parts. His arrangement of beginning with God and the angels long prevailed in methodical encyclopaedias. His last six books follow very closely the order of the last five of Isidore, from which they are taken. His omissions are characteristic of the diminished literary activity and more contracted knowledge of his time. His work was presented to Louis the German, king of Bavaria, at Hersfeld in October 847, and was printed in 1473, fol., probably at Venice, and again at Strassburg by Mentelin about 1472-1475, fol., 334 pages.
Michael Constantine Psellus, the younger, wroteΔιδασκαλία παντοδαπή, dedicated to the emperor Michael Ducas, who reigned 1071-1078. It was printed by Fabricius in hisBibliotheca Graeca(1712), vol. v., in 186 pages 4to and 193 chapters, each containing a question and answer. Beginning with divinity, it goes on through natural history and astronomy, and ends with chapters on excessive hunger, and why flesh hung from a fig-tree becomes tender. As collation with a Turin MS. showed that 35 chapters were wanting, Harles has omitted the text in his edition of Fabricius, and gives only the titles of the chapters (x. 84-88).
The author of the most famous encyclopaedia of the middle ages was Vincent (q.v.) of Beauvais (c.1190-c.1264), whose workBibliotheca mundiorSpeculum majus—divided, as we have it, into four parts,Speculum naturale,Speculum doctrinale,Speculum morale(this part should be ascribed to a later hand), andSpeculum historiale—was the great compendium of mid-13th century knowledge. Vincent of Beauvais preserved several works of the middle ages and gives extracts from many lost classics and valuable readings of others, and did more than any other medieval writer to awaken a taste for classical literature. Fabricius (Bibl. Graeca, 1728, xiv. pp. 107-125) has given a list of 328 authors, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Latin, quoted in theSpeculum naturale. To these should be added about 100 more for thedoctrinaleandhistoriale. As Vincent did not know Greek or Arabic, he used Latin translations. This work is dealt with separately in the article onVincent of Beauvais.
Brunetto Latini of Florence (born 1230, died 1294), the master of Dante and Guido Cavalcanti, while an exile in France between 1260 and 1267, wrote in FrenchLi Livres dou Tresor, in 3 books and 413 chapters. Book i. contains the origin of the world, the history of the Bible and of the foundation of governments, astronomy, geography, and lastly natural history, taken from Aristotle, Pliny, and the old French Bestiaries. The first part of Book ii., on morality, is from theEthicsof Aristotle, which Brunetto had translated into Italian. The second part is little more than a copy of the well-known collection of extracts from ancient and modern moralists, called theMoralities of the Philosophers, of which there are many MSS. in prose and verse. Book iii., on politics, begins with a treatise on rhetoric, chiefly from CiceroDe inventione, with many extracts from other writers and Brunetto’s remarks. The last part, the most original and interesting of all, treats of the government of the Italian republics of the time. Like many of his contemporaries, Brunetto revised his work, so that there are two editions, the second made after his return from exile. MSS. are singularly numerous, and exist in all the dialects then used in France. Others were written in Italy. It was translated into Italian in the latter part of the 13th century by Bono Giamboni, and was printed at Trevigi, 1474, fol., Venice, 1528 and 1533. TheTesoroof Brunetto must not be confounded with hisTesoretto, an Italian poem of 2937 short lines. Napoleon I. had intended to have the French text of theTesoroprinted with commentaries, and appointed a commission for the purpose. It was at last published in theCollection des documents inédits(Paris, 1863, 4to, 772 pages), edited by Chabaille from 42 MSS.
Bartholomew de Glanville, an English Franciscan friar, wrote about 1360 a most popular work,De proprietatibus rerum, in 19 books and 1230 chapters.
Book 1 relates to God; 2, angels; 3, the soul; 4, the substance of the body; 5, anatomy; 6, ages; 7, diseases; 8, the heavens (astronomy and astrology); 9, time; 10, matter and form; 11, air; 12, birds (including insects, 38 names, Aquila to Vespertilio); 13, water (with fishes); 14, the earth (42 mountains, Ararath to Ziph); 15, provinces (171 countries, Asia to Zeugia); 16, precious stones (including coral, pearl, salt, 104 names, Arena to Zinguttes); 17, trees and herbs (197, Arbor to Zucarum); 18, animals (114, Aries to Vipera); 19, colours, scents, flavours and liquors, with a list of 36 eggs (Aspis to Vultur). Some editions add book 20, accidents of things, that is, numbers, measures, weights and sounds. The Paris edition of 1574 has a book on bees.
Book 1 relates to God; 2, angels; 3, the soul; 4, the substance of the body; 5, anatomy; 6, ages; 7, diseases; 8, the heavens (astronomy and astrology); 9, time; 10, matter and form; 11, air; 12, birds (including insects, 38 names, Aquila to Vespertilio); 13, water (with fishes); 14, the earth (42 mountains, Ararath to Ziph); 15, provinces (171 countries, Asia to Zeugia); 16, precious stones (including coral, pearl, salt, 104 names, Arena to Zinguttes); 17, trees and herbs (197, Arbor to Zucarum); 18, animals (114, Aries to Vipera); 19, colours, scents, flavours and liquors, with a list of 36 eggs (Aspis to Vultur). Some editions add book 20, accidents of things, that is, numbers, measures, weights and sounds. The Paris edition of 1574 has a book on bees.
There were 15 editions before 1500. An English translation was completed 11th February 1398 by John Trevisa, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde, Westminster, 1495? fol.; London, 1533, fol.; and with considerable additions by Stephen Batman, a physician, London, 1582, fol. It was translated into French by Jehan Corbichon at the command of Charles V. of France, and printed 14 times from 1482 to 1556. A Dutch translation was printed in 1479, and again at Haarlem, 1485, fol.; and a Spanish translation by Padre Vincente de Burgos, Tholosa, 1494, fol.
Pierre Bersuire (Berchorius), a Benedictine, prior of the abbey of St Eloi in Paris, where he died in 1362, wrote a kind of encyclopaedia, chiefly relating to divinity, in three parts:—Reductorium morale super totam Bibliam, 428moralitatesin 34 books on the Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse;Reductorium morale de proprietatibus rerum, in 14 books and 958 chapters, a methodical encyclopaedia or system of nature on the plan of Bartholomew de Glanville, and chiefly taken from him (Berchorius places animals next after fishes in books 9 and 10, and adopts as natural classesvolatilia,natatiliaandgressibilia);Dictionarius, an alphabetical dictionary of 3514 words used in the Bible with moral expositions, occupying in the last edition 1558 folio pages. The first part was printed 11 times from 1474 to 1515, and the third 4 times. The three parts were printed together asPetri Berchorii opera omnia(an incorrect title, for he wrote much besides), Moguntiae, 1609, fol., 3 vols., 2719 pages; Coloniae Agrippinae, 1631, fol., 3 vols.;ib.1730-1731, fol., 6 vols., 2570 pages.
A very popular small encyclopaedia,Margarita philosophica, in 12 books, divided into 26 tractates and 573 chapters, was written by Georg Reisch, a German, prior of the Carthusians of Freiburg, and confessor of the emperor Maximilian I. Books 1-7 treat of the seven liberal arts; 8, 9, principles and origin of natural things; 10, 11, the soul, vegetative, sensitive and intellectual; 12, moral philosophy. The first edition, Heidelberg, 1496, 4to, was followed by 8 others to 1535. An Italian translation by the astronomer Giovanno Paolo Gallucci was published at Venice in 1594, 1138 small quarto pages, of which 343 consist of additional tracts appended by the translator.
Raphael Maffei, called Volaterranus, being a native of Volterra, where he was born in 1451 and died 5th January 1522, wroteCommentarii Urbani(Rome, 1506, fol., in 38 books), so called because written at Rome. This encyclopaedia, printed eight times up to 1603, is remarkable for the great importance given to geography, and also to biography, a subject not included in previous encyclopaedias. Indeed, the book is formed of three nearly equal parts,—geographia, 11 books; anthropologia (biography), 11 books; and philologia, 15 books. The books are not divided into short chapters in the ancient manner, like those of its predecessors. The edition of 1603 contains 814 folio pages. The first book consists of the table of contents and a classed index; books 2-12, geography; 13-23, lives of illustrious men, the popes occupying book 22, and the emperors book 23; 24-27, animals and plants; 28, metals, gems, stones, houses and other inanimate things; 34, de scientiis cyclicis (grammar and rhetoric); 35, de scientiis mathematicis,arithmetic, geometry, optica, catoptrica, astronomy and astrology; 36-38, Aristotelica (on the works of Aristotle).
Giorgio Valla, born about 1430 at Placentia, and therefore called Placentinus, died at Venice in 1499 while lecturing on the immortality of the soul. Aldus published his work, edited by his son Giovanni Pietro Valla,De expetendis et fugiendis rebus, Venetiis, 1501, fol. 2 vols.