Publisher's Synopsis
"This edition of Chamber's Preface includes both his summary Circle of Knowledge and, as an appendix, his completely detailed Circle of Knowledge. Endnotes to the detailed Circle supply extracts from the Cyclopædia to explain hundreds of terms that are likely to be unfamiliar to today's reader. This edition is coordinated with Michel Malherbe's French translation, which appeared in Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie (2004).This edition has been especially prepared for students. Three centuries ago, a British professional like Ephraïm Chambers could make generous assumptions about the literacy and literary knowledge of his readers as well as their historical consciousness. Unfortunately, those assumptions are today seldom warranted. This edition addresses lacunae in a student's knowledge of the basic elements: who, what, where, and when, from which Chambers drew to write the Preface to his Cyclopædia. This short book is particu
