JOHN WILKES
Encyclopaedia londinensis, or,
Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature
Originally from Winchester, John Wilkes was an established London printer, bookseller and publisher, and the proprietor of the Hampshire Chronicle, one of England’s oldest continuing publications. In 1810 Wilkes published the first eight volumes of his Encyclopaedia londinensiswitha volume published almost every year thereafter until the twenty fourth and last in 1829. Compiled and arranged by Wilkes much of the information came from other small works, not always his own, as was often the case with such compendiums, and indeed he was successfully sued for the not unsubstantial sum of £100 by Charles Roworth author of Art of Defence with the Broad Sword for piracy.
Many of the engravings for the Encyclopaedia londinensis were executed by the extremely gifted John Pass, also originally from Winchester. Pass used his own work as well as images by some of the finest artists of his time, making amendments where necessary to correlate to the Encyclopaedia. Sadly Pass’s lasting fame came not from his life’s work but rather his death. In 1832 whilst collecting a debt Pass was brutally murdered in the workshop of the young printer James Cook. Cook was hanged in Leicester; his body ‘anatomised’ by students, then redressed, placed in a gibbet, and put on display. He was the last man in England to be so exhibited; the crowd became so disorderly and ‘licentious’ that he was immediately buried.
The Encyclopaedia londinensisisprovides an eloquent visual presentation of the history and most recent developments in the Arts and Sciences of the time, and serves as an extraordinary record of the talents of Pass and his contemporaries. These particular examples arein fine original hand colour, expertly and lavishly applied with no expense spared, and are without known equal.
