An encyclopaedia was meant as reference, but also to be savoured. The 11th edition of Britannica (1929) featured Cecil B. DeMille on motion pictures and J.B. Priestley on English literature. It was, wrote Denis Boyles, ‘plausible, reasonable, unruffled, often reserved and completely authoritative’. And sometimes plain wrong.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-old-encyclopaedia-britannica-is-a-work-to-cherish