Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, English-language encyclopaedia published in Great Britain from 1817 to 1845. It is arranged systematically and topically rather than alphabetically. Composed of 25 volumes of text, three of plates, and an alphabetical one-volume index, it was designed to treat completely the sciences and systematic arts in their natural sequence.
The system of arrangement for the articles, with some alteration by the publisher, was drawn up in 1817 by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge divided the topics to be treated in the encyclopaedia into five classes: pure sciences, mixed and applied sciences, biographical and historical information, miscellaneous and lexicographical information, and an analytical index.
The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana contained many treatises by English scholars and authorities of the first half of the 19th century. A second edition in 40 volumes was published from 1848 to 1858.
