The word encyclopedia began as a Greek word and means"instruction in the whole circle." It was the first used in __1__English by sir Thomas Eloyt in 1538. Encyclopedias todayare usually arranged in alphabetical order, but in early timesthey were arranged in any way the author liked. One writerin the Middle Ages began with a discussion of God andangels and end with descriptions of scents and colors and __2__a list of 36 different kinds of eggs. The firstalphabetically arranged encyclopedia was published in 1704by an English clergyman named after John Harris. __3__The oldest encyclopedia in reality was written during the __4__first century A.D. by Plainy, a Roman. Its 37 volumeslist over 20 thousand items. It is valued highly for hundreds __5__of years. Up to 1536 43 editions had been published.The largest encyclopedia, the third Chinese encyclopediacontaining over 5020 volumes and was compiled during the __6__eighteenth century. Between 1751 and 1765 the FrenchEncyclopedia appeared. This collecton was usual because __7__contemporary famous men, imcluded Voltarie, Rousseau, and __8__Diderot, wrote aticles for it.The Encyclopedia Britannica is probably the best knownwork for English-speaking people. It first appeared in Scotland __9__in 1771. In 1961 the world Book Company published a brailleedition of its encyclopedia for blind readers. __10__
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