Encyclopædia Universalis

The Encyclopædia Universalis is a French-speaking Encyclopédie published in volumes, CD-ROM and dvd. It is also accessible on Internet on paying subscription. It is deep seas encyclopedic certified French-speaking person of the Internet, written and validated by more than 7.000 authors of international reputation.

Presentation

It is published by the company of edition Encyclopædia Universalis S.A. . This company was created in 1966 by a specialist in the edition and sale of books and collections by correspondence, the French Club of the book, held by the family Aubry, and Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. (editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica), the most considered Anglo-Saxon encyclopedia, at the time held by the Foundation of the University of Chicago. The purpose of this Joint-venture to 50/50 was to associate competences of the two shareholders in each of the two forms of distribution then essential for the encyclopedias, the mail-order selling on the one hand and the sale with the door with door on the other hand, speciality of the american company. This receipt, as well as the exceptional quality of the successive versions of Encyclopedia Universalis, whose first volume of the first edition appeared in 1968 pennies the direction of Claude Grégory, were going to allow a remarkable business success until the beginning of the year 1990, time to which the sales started to decline.

From the graphic point of view the first model was of Pierre Faucheux.

During second half of the years 1990, the introduction and the fast improvement of electronic versions of the encyclopedia, utlisant leading funds of the version paper nouveau riches of many specific contributions, under the impulse of its President Pierre Manh and of the Leading Director Louis Lecomte, made it possible Encyclopedia Universalis to know one second period of success and growth. On the other hand this transformation caused to modify the economic equilibrium between the distribution networks thus involving increasing conflicts between the shareholders, the intervention of justice and the nomination - at the request of Britannica - of a receiver which ensured the management of the company until July 2005, date on which the French Club of the Book yielded finally its shares to Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. after nearly 40 years of partnership.

In spite of these adventures, Encyclopedia Universalis remains the reference of the French-speaking edition, joining together contributions of the best experts of all the great fields of the knowledge, of which several Nobel Prize, and has a team of editors and professionals without equal, who remain faithful to the tradition of the house, whose leading contents are not limited to a factual description but express a point of view on the covered subjects.

The version paper is not sold any more but to a few thousands of specimens.

Parallel to the editions Paper, of which fifth was published in September 2002, the electronic editions came to be added each year since 1995, initially on Cédérom and then DVD, and finally of the consultable versions remotely on Internet, for the general public or the institutions, via the Souscription of a Abonnement.

Moreover of many specialized works, encyclopedias, dictionaries, CD-ROMs and DVD-ROM sets of themes, were published by the company with the passing of years, only or in co-edition.

History of the editions

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