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Encyclopaediae

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Revision as of 21:48, 9 August 2009 by wikademia>Wikademia (moved Archive:Encyclopaediae to Encyclopaediae over redirect)

An encyclopedia is a written, published reference work that seeks to summarize pertinent information about a wide scope of topics. Encyclopedias are almost always written and edited by experts in appropriate fields of knowledge. Some of the first encyclopedias included works by Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, Pliny the Elder (his one surviving work, Historia naturalis), and Saint Isidore of Seville, a prominent Spanish clergyman who penned Etymologies, aimed to document all of the knowledge of the time.

In more recent times, wikis have been used to build encyclopedia-like reference works online. The best known of these is Wikipedia, but others include Encyc, Citizendium, and Veropedia.