Alright, let’s dive into figuring out who actually whipped up the very first encyclopedia. This whole thing started the other night when I was kinda bored, scrolling through my phone. Saw someone mention “encyclopedia” casually, and it just pinged my brain – like, who actually had this massive idea to compile all the world’s knowledge into one place first? I vaguely recalled Pliny’s Natural History being super old, but was that the first?
So, being a bit stubborn, I grabbed my laptop right there. Didn’t even bother with books first. Figured a quick Google search would spit out the answer, easy peasy. Typed something like “who wrote the first encyclopedia.” Big mistake. Suddenly I’m drowning in links – Wikipedia pages about ancient encyclopedias, Chinese claims about the Erya, stuff about Roman texts, French guys from the Enlightenment… total mess. My coffee was getting cold, and I felt more confused than when I started. Every site seemed to point to someone different! Had to brew another cup just to keep my brain from going fuzzy.
Time to dig deeper, past the first page of search results. I needed older sources, stuff focused purely on history. Found some dusty university articles buried deep. One mentioned a dude named Speusippus, Plato’s nephew. Apparently, way back in ancient Greece – like, 4th century BC! – this guy might have written something called “Concepts Similar to Things.” It was supposedly a list of definitions and terms, aiming to collect knowledge. My eyes kinda bugged out. Greece? Before Rome? That old? Seemed… possible? But it was weirdly phrased and obscure. Felt like chasing smoke.
Kept scrolling, my fingers getting jittery from the caffeine. Hit an academic paper specifically comparing ancient compilations. Bam! There it was, clear as day. While Speusippus was interesting, his work was super fragmented, lost to time mostly, and not really structured like an “encyclopedia” as we think of it. Then they pointed straight to Pliny the Elder, good old Gaius Plinius Secundus. Dude was a Roman, lived around the first century AD. And he wrote Naturalis Historia, or “Natural History.”
Now this thing sounded familiar. The article called it the oldest surviving attempt at a comprehensive encyclopedia. Ten volumes? Covering everything from astronomy to zoology, plants to paintings, magic to metallurgy? Written ages before anyone else? Yeah, that tracks. Clicked through some more verified sources – museums, historical databases – and they all agreed. Pliny wasn’t just compiling dry facts either; he travelled all over the empire, talked to folks, tried to see stuff firsthand. Died getting too close to Vesuvius erupting! Man committed to his research, gotta give him that. Much more concrete than the earlier Greek whispers.
So, after way longer than expected (seriously, killed two coffees and an hour and a half), I landed here:
- Real First Encyclopedia Author: Pliny the Elder.
- Work: Naturalis Historia (Natural History)
- When: Around 77-79 AD (finished just before he died).
The Speusippus thing was a cool ancient footnote, but Pliny’s the one who actually pulled off the gigantic, detailed, surviving compilation. Feels good to have actually chased it down myself, instead of just taking the first Google result. History’s messy, man. But finding the answer? Solid win.
