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Lead book review

An old Encyclopaedia Britannica is a work to cherish

The encyclopaedias of the past were volumes to be savoured – even if they often contained unsavoury views, says Rose George

3 September 2022

9:00 AM

3 September 2022

9:00 AM

All the Knowledge in the World:The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia Simon Garfield

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp.352, 18.99

Two thousand years ago, a young Cilician named Oppian, wanting to rehabilitate his disgraced father, decided to write Halieutica, an account of the world of fishes, as a gift for Marcus Aurelius. It was a mixture of possible fact and definite fiction – if only there were octopuses that climb trees and fishes that fancy goats – and it was a success.

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