Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition

[3] The numbers were bound in three equally sized volumes covering Aa–Bzo, Caaba–Lythrum, and Macao–Zyglophyllum; an estimated 3,000 sets were eventually sold, priced at 12 pounds sterling apiece.

[5] Previous English encyclopedias had generally only listed related terms separately in their alphabetical order, rather like a modern technical dictionary, an approach that the Britannica's management derided as "dismembering the Sciences".

[6] Of this new organisational plan, Smellie wrote that the Encyclopaedia Britannica "...is better calculated to answer all the purposes of a Dictionary of Arts & Sciences than any hitherto published".

Smellie wrote most of the first edition, borrowing liberally from the authors of his era, including Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson.

Although this edition has been faulted for its imperfect scholarship, Smellie argued that the Britannica should be given the benefit of the doubt: With regard to errors in general, whether falling under the denomination of mental, typographical or accidental, we are conscious of being able to point out a greater number than any critic whatever.

To these we appeal, and shall rest satisfied with the judgment they pronounce.Smellie strove to make Britannica as usable as possible, saying that "utility ought to be the principal intention of every publication.