From its modern origins in seventeenth-century France, encyclopedic compilations met the need for the dissemination of information in a more flexible format, one that eschewed the limits of previous centuries of erudition. The rise of vernacular languages dovetailed with the demand for information in every sector, sparking competition among nations to establish the encyclopedic "paper empires" that became symbols of power and potential. The contributors to this edited collection evaluate the long-overlooked phenomenon of knowledge creation and transfer that occurred in hundreds of translated encyclopedic compilations over the long eighteenth century. Analysing multiple instances of translated compilations, Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680–1830 expands into the vast realm of the multilingual, encyclopedic compilation, the most tangible proof of the global enlightenment. Through the presentation of an extensive corpus of translated compilations, this volume argues that the true site of knowledge transfer resided in the transnational movement of ideas exemplified by these compendia. The encyclopedia came to represent the aspiring nation as a viable economic and political player on the world stage; the capability to tell knowledge through culture became the hallmark of a nation’s cultural capital, symbolic of its might and mapping the how, why, and where of the global eighteenth century.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Clorinda Donato and Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink 1. Savary Des Brulons’ Dictionnaire Universel du Commerce: Translations and Adaptations Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink 2. The Cultural and Esthetic Challenges of Translating English and German Articles on the Performing Arts in French Eighteenth-Century Encyclopedias Alain Cernuschi 3. Camels in the Alps: Translations, Transfer, and Adoption Processes in Dutch Encyclopedias Ina U. Paul 4. Long Haul: The Troublesome Publication of the First Dutch Complete Description of Trades and Occupations (1788–1820) Arianne Baggerman 5. Translations in the Encyclopédie méthodique Kathleen Hardesty Doig 6. Branding Knowledge through Transfer and Translation: The Encyclopédie méthodique in Italy and Spain Clorinda Donato 7. The Migration of Beccaria's Penal Ideas in Encyclopedic Compilations (1770–1789) Luigi Delia 8. Transfer and Popularization of Knowledge: Brockhaus’ Conversations-Lexicon in the Early Nineteenth Century Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile 9. Two French Konversationslexika of the 1830s and 1840s: The Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture and the Encyclopédie des gens du monde Jeff Loveland 10. Compiling Based on Translations: Notes on Raynal's and Diderot's Work on the Histoire des deux Indes Susan Greilich 11. Johann Heinrich Zedler and the Challenge of Creating a Proper Encyclopedic Article in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Germany Ulrich Schneider 12. Barbarians in the Archive: Transfers of Knowledge of the Colonial Other in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert Karen Struve 13. The Last Encyclopédie Arianne Baggermann and Clorinda Donato