James Tytler

Who was James Tytler?

James Tytler was a Scottish apothecary and the editor of the second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. Tytler became the first person in Britain to fly by ascending in a hot air balloon.

A group of historiographers wrote about him:

A social outcast, Tytler did much hack work for low pay and rarely if ever emerged from poverty. But [...] he deserves to be remembered as a man of many talents - as a political and religious controversialist, scholar, journalist, poet, song writer, musician, balloonist, pharmacist, surgeon and printer. In addition [...] he was an outstanding encyclopedist whose editorship of the second edition earns him a notable place in the history of encyclopedias.