Espasa Encyclopedia

Three tomos of the encyclopedia where the binding, the colored sheets and some articles are appreciated.

Espasa Encyclopedia, also known as Espasa-Calpe Encyclopedia, whose original name is Universal Illustrated European-American Encyclopedia, is the great Spanish encyclopedia of the XX century, continuation of previous projects, such as the Modern Encyclopedia: Universal Dictionary of Literature, Sciences, Arts, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce by the editor Francisco de Paula Mellado, with 29 volumes, with subsequent appendices up to 39. volumes, or the first multi-volume modern encyclopedia published in Spanish, the Diccionario Enciclopédico Hispano-Americano by Editorial Montaner y Simón, published in 26 volumes between 1887 and 1899.

History

The Espasa Encyclopedia was the most ambitious project of Editorial Espasa (founded by José Espasa Anguera in 1860), which merged in 1926 with Editorial Calpe, by Nicolás María de Urgoiti, and already as Editorial Espasa-Calpe, it joined the Grupo Planeta in 1991. Its purpose was to publish in Spanish an encyclopedic reference work that, apart from covering scientific, artistic and technological knowledge and advances, also included the history, biographies, geography, arts and literature of Spain and Latin America. Its main innovations compared to other nineteenth-century Spanish and foreign encyclopedias were the large extension of its volumes and the intensive incorporation of photographs and illustrations in black and white and color plates.

Based on the New Dictionary of the Castilian Language published by the Espasa Brothers in two large volumes (1866-1867) and already an encyclopedic dictionary, the decision to publish it was taken in the year 1905 and went to print between 1908 and 1930 composed of 70 volumes in 72 volumes (since volumes 18 and 28 are double and contain two volumes each, called "First part" and " Second part"). Between 1930 and 1933, an Appendix of 10 volumes was added to this edition to update the previous ones. Subsequently, the periodic updating of the work was carried out by means of Supplements, generally biennial since 1934, which update not only the main work but also the Appendices. To date, these are 37 volumes (38 volumes). The most recent is the 2011-2012 Supplement, published in 2013; the fourth volume, after the 2003-2004 Supplement, is alphabetical rather than thematic.

Volumes of the Illustrated European-American Universal Encyclopedia, published by Sons of J. Espasa in Barcelona, between 1911 and 1926.

In 1983 the Index 1934-1980 was published, which is the index of contents included in the supplements between 1934 and 1980, updated in 1997 with Appendix A-Z, in one volume, and replaced in 1998 by the Index 1934-1996.

In total, in 2012, the Espasa Encyclopedia had 119 volumes -122 volumes- (excluding the Index 1934-1980 as redundant), and according to calculations made by its editors, more than 180,000 pages, 210 million words, 197,000 illustrations in black, 4,500 color plates, 5,000,000 bibliographical citations and 100,000 biographies.

In 2005, for commercial reasons, it published a second Appendix 1934-2004, of poor quality -since it only partially updated the Appendix 1934-2002, published a couple of years ago before-, called Complemento Enciclopédico, in 8 volumes, presented by the publisher as part of a "new" Enciclopedia Espasa, which would no longer be made up of 126 volumes (all those published up to 2005, minus the Index 1934-1980), but only by 90 (because for editorial purposes they now prefer to dispense with the 34 volumes of Supplements 1934-2004, plus the Index and Appendix A-Z, and reconstruct the work as consisting of the 72+10 historical volumes and the 8 new ones).

It is therefore a novelty that a publisher, almost a hundred years after its publication, continues to offer an encyclopedia in 90 volumes, most of which were written and initially published in the first decades of the century. past. Although the erratic changes in recent years have caused considerable confusion among the owners and users of the encyclopedia, which has not yet been cleared up, as the editorial policy that Espasa-Calpe will follow in the future is unknown.

Versions and copyright controversy

Until recently it was believed that the volumes of the Espasa encyclopedia had been reprinted over the years without any alteration of their contents, since any update would have taken the form of appendices and supplements published to complete the content of the books. original volumes. However, this is refuted by the discovery that the biographies of Flora Osete and José Pérez Hervás, originally included in volumes 40 (1919) and 43 (1921) respectively, were deleted and replaced by other content on the printed pages after the Civil War.

Pérez Hervás worked as artistic director of the encyclopedia between 1919 and 1933, and in 1935 he published a book entitled Espakalpe (The Great Thief) in which he accused those responsible for the publishing house of making workers precarious. workers and having reused a large amount of content from other publications without having paid the corresponding copyright and reproduction rights. The conflict will lead not only to the deletion of the biographical article of Pérez Hervás, but also of Flora Osete, "for the sin of being his wife and partner in lexicographical adventures".

Authors

A group of editors, each in charge of a scientific specialty, established the preliminary list of voices and entrusted the writing of the articles to a large body of editors. According to Juan Ignacio Alonso, editor responsible for the Encyclopedia in its last days of commercial life,

Many of his articles are translations acquired into German encyclopedias, but the bulk of the contents corresponds to his own editors, which were of three types: external – students of the subjects treated–, collaborators who alternated the external work and the internal writing, and those of template, who worked in full time. The latter were known as "the hunger-dead from above", allusion to the place they occupied in the building, the third and the last floor, and their exiguous salary [...] The artistic direction was entrusted to Miguel Utrillo, who designed the logo and convinced Ramón Casas to make the drawings. His cast of collaborators encompasses the most flourishing of Catalan and Spanish intellectuality.

Two lists of collaborators of the Encyclopedia have been preserved, one from 1923 (with 646 authors, most of them journalists, teachers, intellectuals, representatives of the graphic arts, commerce, industry, and even a farmer) and another from 1930. Almost a quarter are ecclesiastical, and the number of women was practically insignificant.

This encyclopedia was innovative in paying special attention to all matters related to Spain and Latin America (hence its name European American). Another contribution was the importance of iconography: it was not just an aesthetic complement, but a source of related information to understand the texts and incorporate data. It has innumerable illustrations in black and white and in color enclosed in a thicker and quality coated paper than the rest of the volume, as well as a very complete quality cartography absent until then in Spanish encyclopedias.

The century of the Espasa

Spass Encyclopedia in a library.

In 2005, on the occasion of the centenary of the beginning of its elaboration, as part of the 2003-2004 Supplement, a commemorative volume entitled The Century of the Espasa was published, which includes the history of the Encyclopedia and an anthology of articles. A new Gran Espasa Universal: Multimedia Encyclopedia was published, an adaptation of the Espasa-Calpe Encyclopedia to the XXI Century, which includes edited, corrected, and updated material from the original Encyclopedia of the XX century plus new information from the present century, consistent in 24 Volumes plus 1 DVD (or 10 CD-ROMs, depending on the preferred option) with more than 160,000 entries, 10,000 illustrations and 1,500 thematic dossiers, as well as video files, sound files, 3D animations and other content on the DVD; and an Knowledge Portal on the Internet that provides a personalized attention service through queries similar to email, the possibility of making queries in real time, access to queries to 9 Espasa dictionaries, a universal thematic chronology, a online learning section and a permanent update service for encyclopedic articles and academic content.

Additionally, what would be the last reprint of the original 72 volumes of the Encyclopedia, the Commemorative Collectors Edition, was published, presenting the new global set of the work as consisting of 90 volumes: the original 72 from the first third of the century XX, the 10 of the first appendix plus 8 volumes of a new appendix arranged at the turn of the century XXI, Appendix 1934-2004. This new complement seeks to link directly with the work that was completed in the early years of the Republic, where the thousands and thousands of pages of the supplements published during the decades of Francoism and the first three of the Bourbon Restoration are replaced by it, continuing where the Republic had left it interrupted. Of this commemorative edition, only 999 numbered collections were published, accompanying the 90 volumes with a Special Memorabilia consisting of a set of 10 plates (reproductions of a selection of publicity works from the Espasa publishing house artistic collection linked to the history of the encyclopedia); one Printing Plate of those used for the production of its first 999 pages; a Sculpture bathed in bronze (6 volumes of the encyclopedia resting on a base with a legend about the commemorative edition) made as a tribute to this landmark of universal culture, also numbered and whose mold has been destroyed; and the DVD Historia de la Espasa, a Universal Culture Myth, on the history of the Encyclopedia, made with unpublished filming and photos of great historical value, rescued from the editorial archives, presented in a case designed following the classic image of the Espasa volumes, with a black spine and gold lettering.

Volumes

Historical 1908-1930

Appendix 1934-2004

The Appendix consists of several volumes.

Supplements 1934-2013

1. 1934
2. 1935
3. 1936-39 (1st Part) / 1936-39 (2nd Part)
4. 1940-41
5. 1942-44
6. 1945-48
7. 1949-52
8. 1953-54
9. 1955-56
10. 1957-58
11. 1959-60
12. 1961-62
13. 1963-64
14. 1965-66
15. 1967-68
16. 1969-70
17. 1971-72
18. 1973-74
19. 1975-76
20. 1977-78
21. 1979-80
22. 1981-82
23. 1983-84
24. 1985-86
25. 1987-88
26. 1989-90
27. 1991-92
28. 1993-94
29. 1995-96
30. 1997-98
31. 1999-2000
32. 2001-2002
33. 2003-2004
34. 2005-2006
35. 2007-2008
36. 2009-2010
37. 2011-2012 ISBN 9788467032062
38. Commemorative end of the Encyclopedia and last updated 2013

Official Plugins

1. Supplements Index 1934-1980 (1983)
2. Alphabetical Appendix A-Z (1997)
3. Supplements Index 1934-1996 (1998) [Actuates and replaces Index 1934-1980]
4. Atlas Universal
5. Atlas of Spain
6. Atlas
7. The Century of the Steps (2005)
8. DVD "History of the Pass, A Myth of Universal Culture" (2005)

2005 Collector's Edition Memorabilia

1. Collection of Spanish Art (10 Promotional Image Laminas of the Encyclopedia between 1910 and 1920).
2. Commemorative Sculpture bathed in Bronze (6 tomos of the encyclopedia on a basis with commemorative legend of that last reprint).
3. Printing sheet used for printing the first 999 pages of that last reprint.

Others

1. Great Universal Spass: Multimedia Encyclopedia (24 Volumes + 1 DVD or 10 CD-ROM) (2005) [Adaptation of the Spass-Calpe Encyclopedia to the CenturyXXIwhich includes edited, corrected and updated material of the original century EncyclopediaXX. more new information of the present century]