Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

William Smellie hired to edit the first edition

When
1768
Where
Edinburgh, Scotland
Part of
Launch of the Encyclopædia Britannica

Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell hired the 28-year-old Scottish printer William Smellie to edit the first edition of the Britannica.

William Smellie, a Scottish printer born in The Pleasance in south-east Edinburgh in 1740, was hired by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell at the age of 28 to edit the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He compiled nearly all the articles himself, with minor help from James Anderson, who contributed the articles 'Dictionary', 'Pneumatics', and 'Smoke'. Smellie emphasized usability, stating that 'utility ought to be the principal intention of every publication.'

Sources

  1. William Smellie (encyclopedist) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-08
  2. Encyclopædia Britannica Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27

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.