Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
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The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary (
History
In 1889, the owner of one of the St. Petersburg printing houses, Ilya Abramovich Efron (ru), at the initiative of Semyon Afanasyevich Vengerov, entered into an agreement with the German publishing house F. A. Brockhaus for the translation into Russian of the large German encyclopaedic dictionary (de) into Russian as Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, published by the same publishing house. Initially, it was supposed to be limited to the translation of this publication, but only with a more detailed presentation of issues related to Russia. It was supposed to release only 16–18 volumes.
The first eight volumes (up to the letter "B"), published under the general editorship of Professor Ivan Efimovich Andreevsky, were almost literal translation with a slight adaptation for the Russian reader. These volumes caused a lot of complaints about the quality of the translation, and the overall management of the publication also left much to be desired. So, the journal "Northern Herald" noted: "There are too many significant shortcomings. There is too little effort, love, and, what is stranger, not enough impressive edition, both literary and purely scholarly!" (1890. № 4. – pp. 76–77), and the journal "Historical Bulletin" added to this that the Encyclopaedic Dictionary was "carelessly and unsatisfactorily compiled. The very language of the articles is heavy and in places wrong. The translation is immediately visible, and it is far from a professorial one, but a gymnasium, awkward, literal" (1890, No. 5. – p. 454).
After the death of Professor Ivan Andreevsky, the editorial office was headed by Academician
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary began to be published in two versions. The first, more expensive, comprised 41 volumes, the second, with a more modest design, of 82 half-volumes. Having broken its expensive publication by half, the company made it more accessible to a wide audience of readers, thanks to which the circulation was brought to a record for that time – 130 thousand copies.
Many prominent scientists and philosophers were invited to the editorial board:
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary was published from 1890 to 1904. 4–5 volumes were published annually. The circulation fluctuated significantly, from 12 thousand copies in 1890 to 25 thousand – in 1897. Semi-volumes 54 and 55, containing an extensive description of Russia (1899), were published in a circulation of 35 thousand copies. The large circulation determined the wide distribution of the dictionary on the market, despite the rather high price.
By 1907, four additional half-volumes were published, edited by
Simultaneously, in 1899–1902, the Small Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron was published in three volumes; in 1907–1909, its second edition was published in four volumes.
In 1911, the "New Encyclopaedic Dictionary" was published, edited by Konstantin Konstantinovich Arseniev, which was supposed to cover the same circle of knowledge as ESBE, but in a more compact and modern processing. In 1916, because of wartime difficulties, the publication of the dictionary was discontinued on the 29th volume of the originally planned 48 volumes of this edition.
The RNL contains proofreading copies of the 30th ("Padalka" – "Perm diocese"; incomplete, without beginning) and 31st volumes ("Perm system" – "Poznan Grand Duchy").
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A section of hydathode in the leaf of Primula sinensis
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Illustration of the Maxim gun
See also
References
External links
- "Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Full edition" (in Russian). Retrieved October 26, 2009.
- digitized copy (Full edition in Runivers.ru