14 - Supplementing: The Encyclopædia Britannica’sSources

Summary

This chapter is about how ‘new’ or recently publishedgeographical information was added to existingcompilations and applied to other (i.e.,non-geographical) topics in Enlightenment Edinburgh.First, it analyses a copyright dispute between rivalpublishers of geographical grammars to demonstratethat the information in geographical compilations,which was commonly copied, constituted a kind ofcommon knowledge in Enlightenment Edinburgh. Thisemphasises the importance of supplementing thesecompilations with new information. Next, it examinesthe sources used by the publishers of the Encyclopædia Britannica,especially for the Supplementto the 3rd Edition of the EncyclopædiaBritannica (1801–1803). This Supplement was intended toinclude any new information that had been uncoveredsince the volumes of the third edition werepublished (1788–1797). Novel additions to the stockof global knowledge were particularly valuable tothe editors of the Encyclopædia in Edin-burgh, who neededmaterial for every new edition. The price,publishing process and format of the Encyclopædia meant that anysupplementary material – much of which was gleanedfrom the books stocked by Charles Elliot and, later,Bell & Bradfute – needed to be skilfullyincorporated into each successive volume. Using Bell& Bradfute's records, the chapter identifies thepublications – largely recently published books ofvoyages and travels – that were used by the Supplement's editor.Finally, the chapter analyses how these sources wereincorporated into the specific form of theencyclopaedia, and how the new geographicalinformation was included under variousalphabetically organised headings, whereby‘EDINBURGH’ followed ‘EARTHQUAKE, LISBON’ and‘EASTER ISLAND’. Crucially, the new informationappeared not just in explicitly ‘geographical’articles; it was also used in essays about subjectssuch as botany or pagan customs, and came tosupplement the Encyclopædia's discussions of race andhuman classification.

The size and structure of a compilation facilitatesboth the casual glance and rigorous memorisation ina way that a mass of travellers’ accounts does not.It also enables comparisons, and for different kindsof information to be combined and shuffled together.For Bruno Latour, the compilation is an advancedstage on a scale of translations of information. Hesuggests that at each successive translation,‘something is gained’.Moreover, ‘The gain is on the paper form itself. For instance,the supplement offered by the map is on the flat surface of paperwhich is easily dominated by the eyes and on whichdifferent elements can be painted, drawn,superimposed and inscribed.’