Jeff Loveland

Wikipedia and encyclopedic production

Wikipedia is often presented within a foreshortened or idealized history of encyclopedia-making. Here we challenge this viewpoint by contextualizing Wikipedia and its modes of production on a broad temporal scale. Drawing on examples from Roman antiquity onward, but focusing on the years since 1700, we identify three forms of encyclopedic production: compulsive collection, stigmergic accumulation, and corporate production. While each could be characterized as a discrete period, we point out the existence of significant overlaps in time as well as with the production of Wikipedia today. Our analysis explores the relation of editors, their collaborators, and their modes of composition with respect to changing notions of authorship and originality. Ultimately, we hope our contribution will help scholars avoid ahistorical claims about Wikipedia, identify historical cases germane to the social scientist’s concerns, and show that contemporary questions about Wikipedia have a lifespan exceeding the past decade.

Why Encyclopedias Got Bigger . . . and Smaller

This article will show that the European encyclopedia’s critical period of growth took place from 1690 to 1840; the size of the largest printed encyclopedias declined or stabilized thereafter. Having established this pattern of change and its importance for encyclopedism, the article will then evaluate the factors determining the change. The early growth of encyclopedias was above all a consequence of competition, perceptions of the market for encyclopedias, and publishers’ and contributors’ psychology, while the most important causes for encyclopedias’ lack of growth after 1840 were the standardization of encyclopedias as products, the cost of compilation, and financial conservatism among encyclopedia-makers.

Scientific Knowledge of Animals in Encyclopedias from around 1700 to 1860

In this article we examine scientific knowledge of animals and disciplines pertaining to them in British, French, and German encyclopedias from around 1700 to the time of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. As our corpus includes scholarly encyclopedias with entries on animals written by specialists, our article is meant to help define the place of the animal in the period’s developing scientific conceptions. At the same time, our goal is to study differences in the representations of animals among encyclopedias, notably between popular and scholarly encyclopedias. By studying the sources of encyclopedias’ entries on animals, we will establish the pathways by which representations of animals were formed, thus connecting knowledge of animals to commercial and literary processes. By studying the intellectual premises of the entries, we will connect knowledge of animals to reading publics, thereby illuminating the status of encyclopedias as intermediaries in the movement of knowledge.

Animals in Encyclopedias from around 1700 to 1860

In this article we examine scientific knowledge of animals and disciplines pertaining to them in British, French, and German encyclopedias from around 1700 to the time of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. As our corpus includes scholarly encyclopedias with entries on animals written by specialists, our article is meant to help define the place of the animal in the period’s developing scientific conceptions. At the same time, our goal is to study differences in the representations of animals among encyclopedias, notably between popular and scholarly encyclopedias. By studying the sources of encyclopedias’ entries on animals, we will establish the pathways by which representations of animals were formed, thus connecting knowledge of animals to commercial and literary processes. By studying the intellectual premises of the entries, we will connect knowledge of animals to reading publics, thereby illuminating the status of encyclopedias as intermediaries in the movement of knowledge.

L’Admiration d’Adam Smith pour l’Encyclopédie

Cet article traite des rapports, surtout d’admiration, du philosophe et economiste ecossais Adam Smith avec l’Encyclopedie. Dans un premier temps, nous nous concentrons sur la recension elogieuse de l’Encyclopedie par Smith pour l’Edinburgh Review de 1755-1756. On en vient ensuite a son achat de l’Encyclopedie et de certains textes apparentes, soit pour la bibliotheque de l’universite de Glasgow, soit pour sa propre bibliotheque. Enfin, nous analysons des references a l’Encyclopedie dans l’oeuvre de Smith. En eclairant la carriere intellectuelle de Smith, cette etude offre un regard nouveau sur les Lumieres francaises et sur la reception de l’Encyclopedie a l’etranger

Pliny's Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History

him, but after 1933 they were renamed in accordance with the new political order. Eckert’s Heinrich Hertz is a good offer to readers who master German and want a condensed and authoritative work on Hertz’s life and scientific career. Of course, it is no substitute for the more scholarly literature, but it makes a recommendable introduction that could well deserve a translation into an English tradition.

Diderot et Laurent Durand, son éditeur principal

Quoique peu connu, Laurent Durand (1712-1763) fut l’un des libraires francais les plus importants du dix-huitieme siecle. Il fut en outre l’editeur principal de Diderot, responsable de la publication de plusieurs des ouvrages clandestins les plus notoires de celui-ci. Les rapports professionnels compliques entre les deux hommes constituent l’objet de cet article. Entre autres choses, nous essayons d’expliquer le brusque affaiblissement de leurs relations commerciales apres 1749 et de preciser l’engagement de Durand – myterieusement tiede par rapport a celui de ses trois associes Briasson, David, et Le Breton - dans la publication de l’Encyclopedie.