Book People Archive

Re: Encylopedic Mystery

"Charles P. Hall" wrote:

> Here's the mystery, Volumes I-VIII cover A-ZYMOTIC, Volumes IX-XII cover
> AACHEN-ZYLONITE. That's right, the alphabet starts over in the middle of
> the series.

  That has happened with other encyclopedias as well. I have a
Swedish translation of the German Reclam encyclopedia (from late 1820's
or thereabouts), and it too does just this, presumably because the German
original did so -- it was issued in two 'rounds' so to speak.

> It's a fascinating thing by the way. Subjects like the invention of the
> "safety match" have huge articles. Fire engines get a big write up.

  Aha... I'm willing to bet my last dollar that you *are* indeed reading
a translation of that Reclam encyclopedia. It has a preoccupation with fire
and fire fighting devices ... probably a clue to the most important
preoccupations of the sociaty of that time. 

  If you are ... welcome to the club :-)
             
  It's rather odd to read -- you find entries on obscure people in
slightly less obscure German towns, who did something miraculous to
save houses from being burt down, or served under some unheard-of
German nobleman, cataloguing an equally unknown library, and ending
up as minor nobility somewhere -- all very Biedermeyer. On the other
hand, the entries covering people, places and battles of the Napoleonic
wars are fascinating reading.  The article on 'Dresden' is marvellous.
And lots of entries on mythological subjects, like Narcissus or
Ariadne, described as if they were entirely real. 

  One of the most wonderful entries I read (... I'll see if I can find it again...)
was on an author who was judged to be so immoral, and so asocial that the
encyclopedia authors could only hope he would quickly pass into a well-deserved
oblivion, and that his name would be soon forgotten. I've 
looked around a little, but not found this author mentioned anywhere else...

-- 
Anders Thulin     Anders.X.Thulin@[redacted]     040-10 50 63
Telia ProSoft AB, Box 85, SE-201 20 Malm, Sweden