Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Education: From A to Zygote
It was a formidable gift that His Britannic Majesty's ambassador brought to His Imperial Majesty, the Shah of Persia, that day in 1804. The ambassador had carried it over thousands of miles, from England, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up the Persian Gulf to Teheran. But the gift was apparently worth the bother. The Shah was so delighted with it that he gave himself a new title in its honor: "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopaedia Britannica."
Actually, by the time the Shah got his set, there were already hundreds...
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