Rees's Cyclopædia, or The New Cyclopaedia, or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences was an important 19th Century encyclopaedia which was regarded by some as subversive when it first appeared. It was edited by Revd. Abraham Rees

Abraham Rees

Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopaedia .- Life :He was the second son of Lewis Rees, by his wife Esther, daughter of Abraham Penry, and was born at born in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. Lewis Rees Abraham Rees (1743 – 9 June 1825) was a Welsh...

 (1743–1825).

Format

The encyclopaedia appeared in parts between January 1802 and August 1820, and ran to 39 volumes of text, 5 volumes of plates, and an atlas. It contains around 39 million words, and more than 500 of the articles are of monograph length. An American edition, with 42 volumes of text and 6 of plates was published by Samuel Bradford of Philadelphia between 1806–1822, with additional American material.

Contributors

It was written by about 100 contributors, most of whom were nonconformists. They were specialists in their fields, covering the arts and humanities, agriculture, science, technology, and medicine. Its engraved plates are particularly fine, being the work of artists like John Farey, Jr.

John Farey, Jr.

-Biography.:Farey was the eldest son of John Farey, Sr., the geologist, and was born at Lambeth, London on March 20, 1791. Details of his education are obscure, but he undertook a systematic study of the manufacturing industry of London between 1804-5...

, and the engraver Wilson Lowry

Wilson Lowry

Wilson Lowry FRS was an English engraver. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, the son of Strickland Lowry, a portrait painter. The family settled in Worcester, and Wilson Lowry, as a boy, left home to work as a house painter in London and Arundel, Sussex...

.

At the time of its publication Rees's Cyclopædia was thought to be subversive, and the editors went out of their way to emphasise their Englishness. It is important today for the information it contains, particularly about the science and technology of the period, and a copy is held at the Science Museum Library and Archives at Wroughton.