1 Answers
The publication of the London Encyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature and Practical Mechanics: comprising a Popular View of the Present State of Knowledge was begun by London-based bookseller and publisher Thomas Tegg in 1825. It may be found in two original editions of 22 volumes, published 1829 and 1839, as well as more recent reprints.
Thomas Tegg describes the project as follows in The Publisher's Address placed into another of his publications in 1828:
On the appearance of the Seventh Edition of Part the First of the LONDON ENCYCLOPÆDIA, the Proprietor feels it incumbent upon him to offer his grateful acknowledgments to the Public, for the unexampled success which his arduous undertaking has hitherto experienced... This most welcome and efficient testimony of public favour he chiefly attributes to the Plan of the Work;—its adaptation in form, in substance, and in price, to the largest portion of the reading community... Thus, instead of appropriating the present profits of the undertaking, he has invariably thrown them back upon the work itself; and he trusts, improvement in the variety, the originality, and the accuracy of the articles in each department is visible to every reader. The contributors possess the highest qualifications for the respective tasks assigned to them; their number has been augmented, and their remuneration increased....in all the essential requisites of science, literature, and good writing, the LONDON ENCYCLOPÆDIA is not inferior to any of its predecessors or contemporaries, while it combines in every branch all the improvements which are to be derived from its being the last in order of time.