The Encyclopædia Britannica was born in 18th-century Edinburgh amid the great intellectual ferment known as the Scottish Enlightenment. It was there and then that Adam Smith prepared The Wealth of Nations, Sir Walter Scott wrote novels, Robert Burns poetry, David Hume and Adam Ferguson philosophy, and James Boswell grew to manhood and attended the university. According to one chronicler of Britannica history, Edinburgh in the mid-1700s was “a city on the verge of a golden age, a centre of learning and a home of writers, thinkers, and philosophers, wags, wits and teachers.” It was against this setting that Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, decided to create an encyclopedia that would serve the new era of scholarship and enlightenment.The first edition of the Britannica was published one section at a time over a three-year period, beginning in 1768. The three-volume set was completed in 1771 and quickly sold out. In 1994 the company developed Britannica Online, the first encyclopedia for the Internet, which made the entire text of the Encyclopædia Britannica available worldwide. Today Encyclopædia Britannica has a larger and more diverse line of products than ever before. Our outlook is shaped by our tradition of excellence and an understanding of what knowledge seekers need in the digital age. Our line of product has grown, the media of publication have changed, but Britannica’s basic mission has not. It’s the same as it was in 1768: to be the worldwide leader in reference, education and learning.

Britannica have been a Debating Matters prize sponsor since 2006, and provided a wide range of prizes for our student debaters. This year our Regional Final winners and runners-up were awarded an Encyclopaedia Britannica 2011 Ultimate Edition DVD and each member of the National Final winning and runners-up teams will win a copy of the Britannica World Atlas.