Britain were only realized, however, when in 1898 The Times undertook to sell a verbatim reprint of the Ninth Edition at about half the price originally asked for it by the publishers. The success of this reprint led to the publication by The Times in 1902 of an elaborate supplement in eleven New Volumes (one containing new maps and one a comprehensive index to the whole work), constituting, with the previous twenty-four volumes, The Tenth Edition. The Eleventh Edition, which supersedes both Ninth and Tenth, and represents in an entirely new and original form a fresh survey of the whole field of human thought and achievement, written by some 1500 eminent specialists drawn from nearly every country of the civilized world, incorporating the results of research and the progress of events up to the middle of 1910, is now published by the University of Cambridge, where it is hoped that the Encyclopædia Britannica has at length found a permanent home.
It will be seen from this brief survey of the history of the Encyclopædia Britannica that, while the literary and scholarly success of the work has been uniform and continuous, its commercial career has naturally been subject to vicissitudes. Six different publishing firms have been at various times associated with its production; and the increasing magnitude of the work, consequent on the steady growth of knowledge, made this wellnigh inevitable. The Encyclopædia Britannica has to-day become something more than a commercial venture, or even a national enterprise. It is a vast cosmopolitan work of learning, which can find no home so appropriate as an ancient university.
The present publication of the new Encyclopædia Britannica by the University of Cambridge is a natural step in the evolution of the university as an educational institution and a home of research. The medieval University of Cambridge began its education labours as an institution intended almost exclusively for the instruction of the clergy, to whose needs its system of studies was necessarily in a large measure accommodated. The Revival of Learning, the Renaissance and the Reformation widened its sphere of intellectual work and its interests, as well as its actual curriculum. The 19th century saw the complete abolition of the various tests which formerly shut the gates of the English universities against a large part of the people. The early establishment in Cambridge of special colleges for women was also a sign of expanding activities. About the same time the University Extension movement, first advocated at Cambridge in 1871 on the ground that the ancient universities were not mere clusters of private establishments but national institutions, led to a wider conception of the possibilities of utilizing the intellectual resources of the universities for the general diffusion of knowledge and culture; and the system of Local Examinations brought the university into close contact with secondary education throughout the country. But the public to which the University of Cambridge thus appealed, though wider than that of the college lecture-rooms, was still necessarily limited. Practically it is only through the medium of the University Press that Cambridge can enter into and maintain direct relations with the whole of the English-speaking world. The present time seems appropriate for an effort towards thus signally extending the intellectual and educational influence of the university.
To this end, the University of Cambridge has undertaken the publication of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and now issues the Eleventh Edition of that work. These twenty-eight volumes and index aim at achieving the high ambition of bringing all extant knowledge within the reach of every class of readers. While the work, in its present form, is to some extent based on the
