Compendium

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For the computer program, see Compendium (software).

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A compendium is a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of Knowledge. A compendium may summarize a larger work. In most cases the body of knowledge will concern some delimited field of human interest or endeavour (for example, Hydrogeology, Logology, Ichthyology, Phytosociology, or Myrmecology), while a "universal" Encyclopedia can be referred to as a compendium of all human knowledge.

The word compendium arrives from the Latin word "compenso", meaning "to weigh together or balance".

The 21st century has seen the rise of democratized, online compendia in various fields.

1 Examples
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

Examples

An example would be the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a 598-question-and-answer concise book which summarises the same set of Catholic Faith and Morals.^[1]

The Bible is another example of a compendium - a group of many writings of the prophets and apostles over a space of time, whose books are put together to form the New Testament and the Old Testament.