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1910 New Catholic Dictionary

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Term used to designate an abridgment of human knowledge in general or a considerable department thereof, treated from a uniform point of view, or in a systematized summary. The technical use of the word dates only from the 16th century, although encyclopedic treatment of human science reaches back to antiquity. Systematic encyclopedias are divided into two classes:

(1) those which present all branches of knowledge, arranged uniformly and organically according to some fixed system of connection;

(2) the lexicographical encyclopedias, which treat of the same matter arranged alphabetically. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was the first in ancient times to attempt a summary of human knowledge in encyclopedic form.