20 Interesting Facts About Encyclopedias

Here are 20 interesting facts about Encyclopedias.

1-5 Encyclopedia Facts

1. Codex Seraphinianus is an illustrated encyclopedia of an unknown, parallel world, written in an unknown language using an unknown alphabet. – Source

2. An encyclopedia company gave away large areas of wastelands on Huntington Beach to customers who bought their books. It was found later that those lands had large oil reserves. – Source

3. There are certain fake entries made in encyclopedias to check whether other publishers or companies are copying from their publications. These are known as Mountweazels. – Source

4 The Chinese Yongle encyclopedia, completed in 1408, was the largest encyclopedia ever created until Wikipedia finally surpassed it in 2007. – Source

5. Before WW2, Chamberlain complained to Goering over the use of concentration camps, after which Goering showed him an encyclopedia stating the concentration camp had been invented by England. – Source

6-10 Encyclopedia Facts

6. Pliny’s encyclopedia of natural history talks about dog-headed men and monopods with umbrella feet. They are even illustrated in the book. – Source

7. Wikipedia is “close to the level of accuracy in Encyclopedia Britannica”, with a similar rate of “serious errors”. – Source

8. The encyclopedia of wars states that out of the total number of wars, 7% of them took place due to religious conflicts. – Source

9. There was an image driven encyclopedia made from user-submitted photos that was like a visual version of Wikipedia – Source

10. Saint Isidore of Seville created one of the first Encyclopedias, and was one of the “last scholars of the ancient world”. Also, he’s the patron Saint of the Internet and computers. – Source

11-15 Encyclopedia Facts

11. Conservapedia, a right winged Christian Influenced encyclopedia was created when they thought that Wikipedia was left wing biased. – Source

12. The 1917 Edition of the Catholic encyclopedia asked people to eat less meat as it somehow caused diseases like cancer. – Source

13. There is an online version of the 1911 version of Encyclopedia Britannica. – Source

14. The only encyclopedia, which still has a new edition coming up every year, is The World Book. – Source

15. There actually exists a man who read the entire encyclopedia and wrote a book about it. – Source

16-20 Encyclopedia Facts

16. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. – Source

17. There is an Encyclopedia of Lubricants and Lubrication, which has 4 volumes. – Source

18. Wikipedia, if printed on paper, would be the same size as 1900+ volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica – Source

19. There is a Star Wars Encyclopedia called “Wookieepedia”. – Source

20. Encyclopedia Dramatica, the satirical Wikipedia-style encyclopedia of internet topics, has been replaced with a neutered site called “Oh Internet”. – Source