First weekly numbers published in Edinburgh
- When
- December 1768
- Where
- Edinburgh, Scotland
The first of 100 weekly instalments of the Encyclopædia Britannica appeared in Edinburgh beginning in December 1768, launching the serial publication.
The Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a New Plan, began appearing in Edinburgh as weekly instalments. Sources date the serial's start to December 1768, with publication continuing until about August 1771. The instalments were planned to run to one hundred weekly 'numbers', which came together to form three volumes reissued in 1771. The work was managed and published by its founders, Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell.
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
- William Smellie (encyclopedist) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-08
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.