The ''Great Greek Encyclopedia'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ''Μεγάλη Ελληνική Εγκυκλοπαίδεια'') is a general knowledge Greek-language

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

, printed initially between 1926 and 1934. The encyclopedia was founded in 1926 by Pavlos Drandakis (1896–1945) after the model of ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

''. He was helped by many well-known and qualified contributors and the result was deemed to be excellent. Iraklis Apostolidis was the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia, while approximately 700 people contributed in the writing of the encyclopedia. Pyrsos, Ltd. was commissioned with printing the encyclopedia and its printing began on March 1, 1926. It was issued approximately in the same time with another Greek encyclopedia of the time, the Eleftheroudakis' Encyclopedic Dictionary. As the target group of the two encyclopedias was the same, in order to decrease the financial strain of the readers, the two encyclopedias were circulating in issues and they were even sold in installments. Pavlos Drandakis reserved some rights of the encyclopedia which he later claimed in court. After he won the trial, his descendants published a second edition of the encyclopedia in 1956 with Phoinix, Ltd. The encyclopedia consists of 24 volumes, of which the tenth is especially dedicated to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. The encyclopedia contains 23,000 pages in its 24 volumes. It includes approximately 280,000 articles and 37,000 images, paintings and maps. The encyclopedia is known for the extensive use of

Katharevousa Katharevousa ( el, Καθαρεύουσα, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contempor ...

. Later on, four further volumes were issued in order to update the facts written in the encyclopedia. The supplements' general title was "Supplement volume X" (with X meaning from I to IV, Α΄ to Δ΄ in Greek), increasing the volumes' sum in 28.

References

* ''Papyros Larousse Britannica'', vol. 18, page 124, and vol. 44, page 267, 2007 Greek encyclopedias 1926 non-fiction books 1956 non-fiction books 20th-century encyclopedias {{Greece-stub