British Encyclopaedia

"The British Encyclopaedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences" was published in 1809 in six octavo volumes and around 150 plates.

It was nominally edited by William Nicholson, but the bulk of the work was overseen by Jeremiah Joyce. It was published by a syndicate of twenty four booksellers whose names appear on the title pages. Each purchased shares and in due time received a proportional profit from the eventual sales. This method of publishing was common in the 18th and early 19th century and was known as a conger. It was particularly suited to part works such as encyclopaedias.

Some of the plates were drawn by John Farey, Jr., and engraved by Wilson Lowry.

For an interesting paper published by The Textbook Colloquium in 1998, comparing the content of "The British Encyclopaedia" with Gregory's "Dictionary of Arts and Sciences", published in 1808, but also edited by Jeremiah Joyce, see [http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/TEXTCOLL/paper4.html] This shows that 50% of the two texts was identical.