How did the Encyclopedia Britannica achieve its name? Where did the "Britannica" originate?

Baloo55th

It originated in Scotland, hence the Britannica meaning British Encyclopedia. It later moved to the USA. This is from memory - have very quickly googled and it's tricky to find things about an encyclopedia! Perhaps that's a help, anyway. Aug 18 03, 4:17 PM

TabbyTom

The first Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh by "A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland" in 1768 - 1771. The editor was William Smellie, a printer who was later the secretary of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. It was what we now call a part-work, published in numbers over a period of time, and was (as its sub-title proclaimed) a dictionary of the arts and sciences. On completion it also appeared in book form (3 volumes; 2,391 pages). The second edition (1777 - 1784), in ten volumes, added history and biography. Other editions followed. The undertaking was taken over by the publishers Constable in 1812; they sold the copyright when their house failed in 1826, and it continued to change hands from time to time. Ownership of the encyclopaedia passed to the USA in 1901 when Horace E. Hooper and Walter M. Jackson purchased it from Adam and Charles Black. The work has been available on CD-ROM since 1995 and on DVD since 1999. (Sources: Oxford Companion to English Literature and Encyclopaedia Britannica on DVD). Aug 18 03, 4:35 PM

ahuod

IT was made in Great Britin and the romans named it britannicas Aug 21 03, 12:25 AM

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