Plutarch
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Plutarch. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
plu'tark, a Greek writer of prose. He lived during the period of Grecian subjection to Rome,--during the reigns, it is inferred, of Nero to Trajan, inclusive. He is known chiefly for a series of Lives. The series consists of forty-six numbers. Each treats of a noted Grecian and of a Roman. Each pair is treated by way of contrast and comparison. A suitable moral points each pair of lives. Among the pairs are the lives of Alexander and Caesar, Demosthenes and Cicero, etc. He wrote the Lives in the Greek tongue. He drew his information from a vast number of manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts have been lost. Some authors are known, indeed, only through Plutarch's references. Many facts of Roman and Greek history are known to the historian through the Lives only, and many words in Greek lexicons have not been found outside of his writings. Nevertheless his Greek has borrowed too much from the Latin and from Rome, where he resided for a time, to take high rank in literature. As to historical value, fact and fable are mingled inextricably. None the less, Plutarch's Lives is an excellent boys' book and a charming volume for the mature student. The first printed edition of the Lives appeared at Florence in 1517. So far as ancient history is concerned, the Lives are considered "Shakespeare's storehouse." Extensive writings by Plutarch on moral subjects exist, but are little known save to the maker of a Greek lexicon.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Greek biographer and moralist, a native of Chæronea, in Bœotia. In A. D. 66 he was a pupil pil of the philosopher Ammonius at Delphi. He visited Italy, and spent some time at Rome, lecturing there on philosophy as early as the reign of Domitian. He returned to his native town, where he held various magistracies, and was appointed priest of Apollo. He was still living in 120, but the time of his death is not known. His great work is entitled " Parallel Lives, " and consists of biographies of 46 eminent Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs, each pair accompanied by a comparison of characters. They are written with a moral purpose, and present not orderly narratives of events, but portraitures of men, drawn with much graphic power, with great good sense, honesty, honesty, and kind heartedness. Few books of ancient or modern times have been so widely read, so generally admired, as these "Lives." The most important of modern English translations of his work is A. H. Clough's (New York, 1910).