This site is an online word‐for‐word transcription of the entire 15 volumes of the print edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on The Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, edited by Charles G. Herbermann et al. Originally published by The Encyclopedia Press between the years 1907 and 1914, the print edition is now out of copyright, and therefore available for placement on the internet. It was the brainchild of Kevin Knight, a Catholic layman, who was inspired to publish the work on the internet after attending a 1993 US World Youth Day event of Pope John Paul II. The encyclopedia is a part of the New Advent Catholic Supersite, a non‐profit organization, which provides resources and news about the Catholic faith. The site also provides access to public domain full text editions of the Roman Catholic Bible, the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, works by many Fathers of the Catholic Church, as well as a large number of Church related documents.
The original print edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia was the first multi‐volume work of its kind to explore every facet of Roman Catholic doctrine, history, and accomplishments. The goal of the project, as stated in the original Preface posted to the site, was to “give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine”. As such, the work sought to provide the complete corpus of Catholic history and teaching, as well as, to note the contributions of Catholic artists, educators, poets, and scientists. The work contains over 11,000 entries written by an international team of Catholic scholars of the time period. Article entries are clear and concise, intended for general readership, but suitable for scholarly research as well. Although most of the articles pertain to matters of Catholic interest, the encyclopedia includes many fine articles on other topics as well, including, philosophy, medieval history, and other religious denominations, many of which, despite the encyclopedia's age, are still relevant and highly informative. Although the editors of the encyclopedia were laymen, the work bears the imprimatur of the then current Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal Farley, under whose jurisdiction it was published. The writing of the encyclopedia began in 1905. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and was completed in April 1914. Readers should note that several revised editions have since been published the latest appearing in 2002 (Marthaler et al., 2002) (reviewed in these columns, RR 2003/230).
The online version of the encyclopedia was transcribed by a team of volunteers throughout the US, Canada, France, and Brazil. As described on the site, volunteers assisting in the transcription used personal or library copies of the print edition and then scanned or hand‐typed the original articles. When finished, the volunteers emailed the completed articles to Knight who then uploaded them to the site. The project was started in 1995 and was completed in early 2000. The online version includes all 15 volumes of the original plus the supplementary articles included in the Index. It does not, however, include the index, the exclusion of which is not really missed in a hyperlinked online environment.
The encyclopedia can be accessed directly at www.newadvent.org/cathen, or through the New Advent Supersite at www.newadvent.org, where a link to the encyclopedia is provided at the top right‐hand corner and on a left‐hand sidebar. The Preface to the original print edition serves as the home page of the encyclopedia. At the bottom of the Preface are links to three related articles: “The making of the Catholic encyclopedia” (1917) and “To the Knights of Columbus and their friends”, both from the original print edition, and “Byte by byte, Catholic encyclopedia launched into cyberspace” (1997), which provides a brief history of the online version. Users can access the encyclopedia articles by either browsing through an alphabetical A‐Z index or by using a Google powered search engine. Entries are listed by the original encyclopedia headings and include brief content descriptions.
The articles are straightforward, word‐for‐word transcriptions of the originals, with important keywords hyperlinked to other referenced articles within the work. While the hyper‐linking of keywords is a convenient way to search for information on related topics, it can be a little overdone at times. For example, in the article Abraham a Sancta Clara, a seventeenth century Augustinian Friar, every instance of the word “Abraham” (the individual about whom the article is written) is hyperlinked to the article for Abraham the Biblical patriarch. This seems a little excessive, as the hyper‐linking in this particular instance has no correlation to the original article. While some of the maps, photographs, and graphical images from the print edition have been retained, sadly many have been omitted. No explanation is provided on the site as to why this is so. In addition, many of the images that have been retained do not include the original captions, resulting in a loss of context to the article in which they appear. Original bibliographies are included at the end of each article, as well as author and publication information, which includes the volume number in which the article was published in the print edition. Corresponding page numbers are not included as a part of the publication information, but the original starting page number can be extracted from the URL. For example, as stated on the web site:
In an article numbered 08646a.htm, the volume is “08” and the page number is “646”.
The site is easy to navigate and straightforward to use. Articles load quickly, even when accessed through a dial‐up connection. The site does include rotating advertisements from Google, as well as those for Catholic related books and other products, but these do not detract from the functionality or attractiveness of the work. Users preferring an advertisement free environment may purchase the entire encyclopedia on CD‐ROM through the site. As with all volunteer projects, mistakes are always inevitable. In this regard a few minor typographical errors were found in several articles. A Contact Us link resides at the bottom of each page, providing a convenient method for submitting comments, suggestions, or corrections.
While the information in the encyclopedia can be a little dated at times, the work is relevant and useful, especially in the areas of Church history, theology, and philosophy. Users must keep the original publication date in mind, as the encyclopedia will not include Church history or contributions from the last century. In addition, as the work predates Vatican Council II, many changes in Church doctrine will also not be included. Serious researchers should check the contents against more current resources for the most up to date information. Still, this is a wonderful resource to have available on the Internet and Kevin Knight, the project's founder, should be commended for taking on such an ambitious task. The encyclopedia is suitable for public and academic libraries, or anyone interested in the history, doctrines, and contributions of the Roman Catholic Church. Highly recommended!
