An example would be Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, and an enthusiastic gourmand. Some well known literary figures have written their own compendium. The Bible is another example of a compendium-a group of many writings of the law, prophets, and writings of the Hebrew Bible held to be comprehensive and complete within Judaism and called the Old Testament by Christianity, which is placed together with the evangelists and apostles of the new testament, which are similarly held to by Christianity to be comprehensive and complete. The single volume Propædia is Brittannica's compendium of the many volumes of its Macropaedia.

The collected works of Aristotle is a compendium of natural philosophy, metaphysics, language arts, and social science. Most nations have compendiums or compilations of law meant to be comprehensive for use by their judiciary, for example the Torah law is a compendium of the laws and commandments pertaining to a particular nation, including a law prohibiting adding to it or removing from it. Bestiaries were medieval compendiums that catalogued animals and facts about natural history and were particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century.Ī cookbook is a compendium of recipes within a given food culture.Īn example would be the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a concise 598-question-and-answer book which summarises the teachings of the Catholic Faith and Morals. Examples Ī field guide is a compendium of species found within a geographic area, or within a taxa of natural occurrence such as animals, plants, rocks and minerals, or stars. Its etymology comes from a Medieval Latin use ( com+ pendere) literally meaning to weigh together. Įntry on word 'compendious' in says 'concise, abridged but comprehensive,' According to compendium constitutes 'concise compilation comprising the general principles or leading points of a longer 'system or work','. And compenso means balance, poise, weigh, offset. Meaning, etymology and definitions Īccording to Latin prefix 'con-' is used in compound words to suggest, 'a being or bringing together of many objects' and also suggests striving for completeness with perfection.