The New Royal Encyclopaedia; Or, A Complete Modern Dictionary of Arts and Sciences Containing A New, Universal, Accurate, and Copious Display of The Whole Theory and Practice of The Liberal and Mechanical Arts &c.

HALL, William Henry.

Item Number: 126553

London: Printed for C. Cooke, 1788-91.

First edition of Hall’s monumental New Royal Encyclopaedia. Folio, three volumes bound in full contemporary calf with black morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, floral stamping to the panels. published in 150 parts. With a dedication to the King, preface leaf, 8pp subscriber’s list, and ‘abstract of His Majesty’s license’ leaf, the final volume with a ‘directions to the binder’ leaf listing the plates. Complete with 153 maps & plates, as called for, several folding. [Alston III, 568; Cordell H-4; Ebert 6704b; Goldsmiths 13772]. In very good condition. Uncommon and desirable in a complete state.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. The beginnings of the modern idea of the general-purpose, widely distributed printed encyclopedia precede the 18th century encyclopedists. However, Chambers' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1728), and the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot (1750) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1751 onwards), as well as Encyclopædia Britannica (1768) and the Conversations-Lexikon, were the first to realize the form we would recognize today, with a comprehensive scope of topics, discussed in depth and organized in an accessible, systematic method. Chambers, in 1728, followed the earlier lead of John Harris's Lexicon Technicum of 1704 and later editions (see also below); this work was by its title and content "A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves".