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1995
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95-1-025
Vol. 1. A - Arnoy. - 1994. - 616, (15) p. - ISBN 87-7789-001-9
The lack of a national Danish encyclopedia has long been noted and explains the persistence of Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon on library shelves, as the only work providing information on Danish topics. The publication of a long-rumored Danish national encyclopedia was announced in 1991; volume 1 was published in November 1994, ahead of schedule, and a completion date of 2001 was set for the whole project. The encyclopedia is published by the Aktiengesellschaft Dansk Nationalleksikon, an affiliate of the Gyldendal publishing house, the leading Danish publisher since the 1930s.
This work is less an encyclopedia than a dictionary of short articles, many illustrated with diagrams or photographs. A number of the articles are initialed and an index of abbreviations makes it possible to determine the author, as well as the contributors by subject area. The major flaw is the lack of a list of literature references for the articles. Can the SDE replace Salmonsen? The answer -- yes and no. Keep both if there is space, otherwise opt for the newer work, despite the loss of information that results from sacrificing Salmonsen. For example, the SDE has 53 entries under Andersen, Salmonsen only 32; 20 of these, however, are not found in the SDE. [sh/jb]
95-1-026
Fröhner's dissertation examines the Oeconomisch- technologische Encyclopädie, begun in 1773 by Johann Georg Krünitz, continued by others, and completed in 1858 for a total of 242 volumes. In the first part she researches the authors who contributed articles to the encyclopedia, the owners of the publishing houses, and the purpose of the work. In the main part of her dissertation Fröhner selects specific topics in order to trace how the scientific thought of Krünitz's day was presented in the encyclopedia, an analysis that was based on the evaluation of close to ten thousand titles from Krünitz's library and other sources.
Given the amount of material with which she works, Fröhner's occasional lapses are excusable, as when she confuses two authors with same last, but different first names, or when she indicates that no additional information is available about an author of the encyclopedia named Korth, even though such material is given in standard sources such as "Goedeke." Despite slips such as these and the slight unevenness of the work as a whole (due to the pressures of completing a dissertation within a given time frame, and the failure sometimes to update earlier draft versions of her work) Fröhner has accomplished a significant work that is destined to advance research on Krünitz and the seldom-studied encyclopedia that he founded. [os/jb]
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