Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences

Cyclopædia: or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences is a British encyclopedia prepared by Ephraim Chambers and first published in 1728.

The title page of the first edition summarizes the author’s aims: Cyclopædia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; containing the Definitions of the Terms, and Accounts of the Things ſignify'd thereby, in the several Arts, both Liberal and Mechanical, and the ſeveral Sciences, Human and Divine: the Figures, Kinds, Properties, Productions, Preparations, and Uſes, of Things Natural and Artificial; the Riſe, Progreſs, and State of Things Ecclesiastical, Civil, Military, and Commercial: with the ſeveral Syſtems, Sects, Opinions, &c. among Philoſophers, Divines, Mathematicians, Phyſicians, Antiquaries, Criticks, &c. The Whole intended as a Course of Antient and Modern Learning.The first edition included numerous cross-references meant to connect articles scattered by the use of alphabetical order, a dedication to the king, George II, and a philosophical preface at the beginning of Volume 1.

When Chambers was in France in 1739, he rejected very favorable proposals to publish an edition there dedicated to Louis XV.

George Lewis Scott was employed by the booksellers to select articles for the press and to supply others, but he left before the job was finished.

Abraham Rees, a nonconformist minister, published a revised and enlarged edition in 1778–1788, with the supplement and improvements incorporated.

[5] Chambers's Cyclopaedia in turn became the inspiration for the landmark Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, which owed its inception to a proposed French translation of Chambers's work begun in 1744 by John Mills,[6] assisted by Gottfried Sellius.