Everything about Catholic Encyclopedia totally explained
The
Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the
Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an
English-language encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia Press. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and it was completed in April 1914. It was designed to give "authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine".
Intent
The encyclopedia was designed to serve the
Roman Catholic Church, excluding information which has no relation to the Church and explaining matters from the point of view of the official Catholic doctrine, as it stood during the
pontificate of
Pius X. It records the accomplishments of Catholics and some others in nearly all intellectual and professional pursuits, including artists, educators, poets and scientists. While more limited than other general encyclopedias, it was far broader in scope than previous efforts at comprehensive Catholic encyclopedias, which had studied only internal Church affairs.
It also offers in-depth portrayals of historical and philosophical ideas, persons and events, from the Roman Catholic point-of-view. On issues that divide Catholicism from other Churches and Protestant ecclesial communities, the text consistently presents matters from the Catholic point of view. Since the encyclopedia was first undertaken in 1913, some of its entries are not up-to-date, either with respect to the secular domain or to the Catholic ecclesiastical world. In particular, it predates the
Second Vatican Council, which introduced significant changes in Catholic practice.
History
The writing of the encyclopedia began on
January 11,
1905 under the supervision of five editors:
The editors, all situated in the United States, had their first editorial meeting at the office of
The Messenger, on West 16th Street,
New York City. The text received a
Nihil Obstat ("nothing hinders") from an official censor Remy Lafort on
November 1,
1908 and an
Imprimatur ("let it be printed") from
John Cardinal Farley, who was
Archbishop of New York at the time. This review process was presumably accelerated by the reuse of older authorized publications. In addition to frequent informal conferences and constant communication by letters, the editors subsequently held 134 formal meetings to consider the plan, scope and progress of the work, culminating in publication on
April 19,
1913. A supplement was published in
1922.
There was controversy over the presence of the Catholic Encyclopedia in public libraries with nativist protests that this violated the
separation of church and state, including a successful appeal in
Bellville.
The encyclopedia was later updated under the auspices of
The Catholic University of America and a 17-volume
New Catholic Encyclopedia was first published in
1967, and then in
2002.
Internet version
Under
United States copyright law, all works published in the United States before 1923 are in the
public domain. In
1993, Kevin Knight, then a 26-year-old resident of
Denver, Colorado, was inspired, during the visit of
Pope John Paul II to that city for
World Youth Day, to launch a project to publish the 1913 edition of the encyclopedia on the Internet. Knight founded the website
New Advent
to house the undertaking. Volunteers from the
United States,
Canada,
France and
Brazil helped in the transcription of the original material. The site went online in
1995 and transcription efforts stopped in
1997.
In 2007
Catholic Answers published an
authoritative version derived from page scans, (with complete article text, full-sized page scans,
color illustrations,
maps, etc.) thus avoiding problems of missing articles and transcription errors found on other sites.
For those both inside and outside the USA, in addition to full-article text, access to page scans is provided by Catholic Answers'
Original Catholic Encyclopedia site:
Volume 1: Aachen - Assize
Volume 2: Assizes - Browne
Volume 3: Brownson - Clairvaux
Volume 4: Clandestinity - Diocesan
Volume 5: Diocese - Fathers
Volume 6: Fathers - Gregory
Volume 7: Gregory - Infallibility
Volume 8: Infamy - Lapparent
Volume 9: Laprade - Mass
Volume 10: Mass - Newman
Volume 11: New Mexico - Philip
Volume 12: Philip - Reuss
Volume 13: Revelation - Simon
Volume 14: Simony - Tournely
Volume 15: Tournon - Zwirner
Volume 16: Supplement
The 1922 supplement to the Encyclopedia is also in the public domain, but as of 2007 hasn't been placed on-line. The New Catholic Encyclopedia is available online at some libraries.
The scanned copies of it's also available on Google Books, which isn't accessible for people outside the USA.
Volumes :
1: (External Link)
2 : (External Link)
3 : (External Link)
4 : (External Link)
5 : (External Link)
6 : (External Link)
7 : (External Link)
8 : (External Link)
9 : (External Link)
10 : (External Link)
11 : (External Link)
12 : (External Link)
13: (External Link)
14: (External Link)
15: (External Link)
16 : (External Link)
Supplement I, Vol 17 of the 1922 supplement is available here: (External Link)
Supplementary volume of 1918: (External Link)Further Information
Get more info on 'Catholic Encyclopedia'.
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