Week 2

I thought it would be relevant to examine the entry for Alexandria in the first edition of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, released at the end of the period covered in this week’s readings, to see how much attention was devoted to it.

Encyclopaedia Britannica; or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Compiled on a New Plan. Vol. 1, 1st ed. 1771.

Page 78

ALEXANDRIA, a sea-port town of Egypt, situated in 31. 15. E. long. And 30. 40. N. lat. About fourteen miles westward of the most westerly branch of the river Nile.

For comparison, the entry on Athens, from page 501

ATHENS, anciently the capital of Attica, so famous for its learned men, orators, and captains, now called setines. It stands upon a plain watered by the rivers Illifus and Eridanus, about 40 miles east of the isthmus of Corinth. At present it is said to contain 10, 000 inhabitants, three parts of which are Christians. The town does not lie round the Castle as anciently, but on the north-west side of it. Here a Greek metropolitan resides. Among the many remains of antiquity, is the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and temple of Minerva, called Parthenion which last is still entire, and converted into a Turkish mosque, which as later travellers assure us, is the finest temple in the world. This city, as all the rest of Greece, is subject to the Turks. E. long. 24’ 15’ N. lat. 38’ 5’.

Though both entries are scant compared to those in subsequent editions, the difference between them is remarkable. In this first edition, Alexandria is nothing more than ‘a sea-port town’, reduced to a set of coordinates, while Athens is fleshed out to include references to ancient sites and, interestingly enough, the observations of recent travellers.