encyclopedia

Pierre Bayle – Forerunner of the Age of Enlightenment

18. November 2021 Tabea Tietz

On November 18, 1647, French philosopher and writer Pierre Bayle was born. As a forerunner of the Encyclopedists and an advocate of the principle of the toleration of divergent beliefs, his works subsequently influenced the development of the Enlightenment. He is probably best known for his seminal work the Historical and Critical Dictionary. “Reason is like a runner who doesn’t know that the race is over, or, like Penelope, constantly undoing what…

history

Samuel Johnson and his Famous Dictionary

15. April 2020 Tabea Tietz

On April 15, 1755, after nine years of intensive labor, Samuel Johnson publishes his “Dictionary of the English Language”, sometimes published as Johnson‘s Dictionary. It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. “I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and…

history

The World according to Sebastian Münster

20. January 2020 Harald Sack

On January 20, 1488, German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Christian Hebraist scholar Sebastian Münster was born. His work, the Cosmographia from 1544, was the earliest German description of the world. In (Western) Germany, he is best known for his portrait on the former German 100 DM banknote – of course only to people who are old enough to remember the old Deutsche Mark banknotes (valid from 1962-1991). Sebastian Münster – Youth and Education Sebastian…

women in technology

Herrad of Landsberg and the Garden of Delights

5. March 2019 Tabea Tietz

Herrad of Landsberg was a 12th-century Alsatian nun and abbess of Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey It is assumed that Herrad of Landsberg was born around 1130. Hohenburg Abbey, also known as Mont St Odile, was run by Abbess Relinda, a nun sent from the Benedictine monastery of Bergen in Bavaria.…

communication

All the World’s Knowledge – Wikipedia

15. January 2019 Harald Sack

On January 15, 2001, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia was officially launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Wikipedia‘s 55,001,389 articles in 325+ languages, including more than 6 million articles in the English Wikipedia (as of January 2022 [10]), are written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet. Encyclopedias from the Print to the Web Do you remember how life was before there was…

mathematics

Jean Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert and the Great Encyclopedy

16. November 2018 Harald Sack

On November 16, 1717, French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist Jean Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert was born. He was one of the most important mathematicians and physicists of the 18th century and a philosopher of the Enlightenment. Probably he is best known as co-editor with Denis Diderot of the famous Encyclopédie, edited between 1751 and 1772.[5] “Nothing is more incontestable than the existence of our sensations; …” — Jean Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert,…

philosophy

Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts

31. July 2018 Harald Sack

On July 31, 1784, French philosopher, art critic, and writer Denis Diderot passed away. Diderot is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d’Alembert.[1] He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment. “From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.” — Denis Diderot, Essai sur le Mérite de la Vertu (1745) The Oldest Child of a Jansenist Master Cutler Denis Diderot…