Rees's Cyclopædia

"Rees's Cyclopædia", or "The New Cyclopaedia, or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences" was edited by Revd. Abraham Rees (1743-1825). It appeared in parts between January 1802 and August 1820, and ran to 39 volumes of text, 5 volumes of plates, and an atlas. It contains around 39 million words, and more than 500 of the articles are of monograph length. An American edition, with 42 volumes of text and 6 of plates was published by Samuel Bradford of Philadelphia between 1806-1822, with additional American material.

It was written by about 100 contributors, most of whom were nonconformists. They were specialists in their fields, covering the arts and humanities, agriculture, science, technology, and medicine. Its engraved plates are particularly fine, being the work of artists like John Farey, Jr., and the engraver Wilson Lowry.

At the time of its publication "Rees's Cyclopædia" was thought to be subversive, and the editors went out of their way to emphasise their Englishness.

"Rees's Cyclopædia" is important today for the information it contains, particularly, about the science and technology of the period.

References

*Woolrich, A. P., 'John Farey, Jr., technical author and draughtsman: his contribution to Rees's "Cyclopadia" '. "Industrial Archaeology Review", 20, (1998) 49-68 [http://www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk/arev20.htm AIA Abstracts 1998]