Burgundy
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Burgundy. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a region of western Europe, so named from the Burgundians, a Teutonic or Germanic people originally from the country between the Oder and the Vistula. They migrated first to the region of the upper Rhine, and, in the beginning of the 5th century, passed into Gaul and obtained possession of the S. E. part of the country, where they founded a kingdom having its seat of government sometimes at Lyons and sometimes at Geneva. They were at last wholly subdued by the Franks. In 879 Boson, Count of Autun, succeeded in establishing the royal dignity again in part of this kingdom. He styled himself King of Provence, and had his residence at Arles. His son, Louis, added the country beyond the Jura, and thus established Cisjuran Burgundy. A second kingdom arose when Rudolph of Strettlingen formed Upper or Transjuran Burgundy out of part of Switzerland and Savoy. Both these Burgundian kingdoms were united, and finally, on the extinction of Rudolph's line, were incorporated with Germany. But a third State, the historical DUCHY OF BUR- GUNDY, consisting principally of the French province of Bourgogne or Burgundy, had been formed as a great feudal and almost independent province of France in the 9th century. This first ducal line died out with a Duke Philip, and the duchy, reverting to the crown, was, in 1363, granted by King John France to his son, Philip the Bold, who thus became the founder of a new line of Dukes of Burgundy. A marriage with Margaret, daughter of Louis III., Count of Flanders, brought him Flaners, Mechlin, Antwerp and Francheders, Comté. He was succeeded by his son, Duke John the Fearless, whose son successor, Philip the Good, so greatly extended his dominions that, on his death, in 1467, his son Charles, surnamed the Bold, though possessing only the title of Duke, was in reality one of the richest and most powerful sovereigns of Europe. Charles left a daughter, Mary of Burgundy, the sole heiress of his States, who by her marriage to Maximilian Austria transferred a large part of her dominions to that Prince, while Louis XI., of France, acquired Burgundy proper as a male fief of France. Burgundy then formed a province, and is now represented by the four departe-etments of Yonne, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et- Loire, and Ain. It is watered by a number of navigable rivers, and is one of the most productive provinces in France, especially of wines.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a province of France noted for its red wines. Historically Burgundy is the home of the Burgundians, a German people occupying the valleys of the Loire and the upper Rhone. The seat of the Burgundian kingdom was at Lyon or Geneva. The Burgundians were at war frequently with the Franks, and were several times subdued only to reassert their independence. Under Philip the Bold and Charles the Bold, extensive territory was acquired as far north as Holland. It was only shortly before the discovery of America that it was decided that France should absorb Burgundy, and not Burgundy, France. See France ; Champagne
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 said Burgundy was "now represented by the four departments of Yonne, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, and Ain" — the modern administrative Bourgogne, created in the 1950s, in fact took in Nièvre rather than Ain, and in 2016 it disappeared altogether, merged with Franche-Comté into the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté with its capital at Dijon. The history of dukes and kingdoms in both accounts still stands; what has moved is the wine. In 2015 UNESCO inscribed the Climats of the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune — more than a thousand named plots, some under an acre, mapped over centuries — as a World Heritage site, formalising the idea of terroir that Aiton's 1910 note on "red wines" only gestured at. Aiton's placing of the Burgundians in the valley of the Loire is a slip; their kingdom lay on the Rhône and Saône.
Written for this edition, 2026.