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The ''Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana'' (also called ''Enciclopedia Espasa'', or ''Enciclopedia Espasa-Calpe'', after its publisher, founded by José Espasa Anguera) is a Spanish encyclopedia. It comprises 72 volumes (numbered from 1 to 70, with parts 18 and 28 consisting of two volumes each) published from 1908 to 1930 plus a ten-volume appendix published 1930–33. Between 1935 and 2003, 33 supplemental volumes were published plus an index, another A–Z appendix, and an atlas, for a total of 118 volumes. Each of the volumes vary in length. As of 1986, it is the longest. The Chinese Great General Encyclopedia of Yung-lo ta tien (1403–8) conserves only 370 of its 22,937 chapters and the 15th edition

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

is listed as "the most ample current encyclopedia" with 43,000,000 words. printed encyclopedia with 105,000 pages and 165,200,000 words. ''Encyclopaedias: Their History Throughout The Ages'' regards the ''Espasa'' as one of the greatest encyclopedias, along with the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. So ...

'' and the ''

Enciclopedia Italiana Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani ...

'' (p. 147). "This work is remarkable for its detail: maps and plans of even remote and obscure places; reproductions and descriptions of works of art entered under their titles; lengthy

bibliographies Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

, international in scope; full dictionary treatment of individual words with, in many cases, foreign equivalents; and usually affording full scope to lengthy treatment of important subjects." (201) The authors of the work, as an example of its scope, mentioned in the preface (vii) that all botanical

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

known at the time were covered in the work. Common words (not proper names) are translated into English, French, German,

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

and other languages. The aim of the publishers was to produce an encyclopedia reference book in Spanish that covered scientific and technological knowledge as well as history, biographies,

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

, and the literature of Spain and Latin America. According to calculations made by its publishers, the encyclopaedia has more than 165,000 pages and 200 million words. The 82-volume version is also estimated to have over 1,000,000 articles (Kister 450). Only minor revisions have been made to the original volumes, such as the rewrite of a part of the 1910 "''bicicleta''" (bicycle) article which had enumerated a "

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

" as one of the things to be taken on a bicycle tour. In 2003 a repackaged version was published in 90 volumes, consisting of the original 82 volumes plus a new 8-volume ''Complemento Enciclopédico 1934–2002'' update. The old supplements will not be republished.

References

General references

*. *

Inline citations

External links

* .
Scans of a few pages from the beginning of the ''Enciclopedia Espasa''
* In the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

: Volume
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Many other volumes are also available there. {{Authority control Europeo-americana, universal ilustrada, Enciclopedia 1908 non-fiction books 20th-century encyclopedias 21st-century encyclopedias