Rabelais
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Rabelais. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
rab-e-la', Francois, a French writer of the sixteenth century. He is thought to have lived 1483-1553. He was by turns a Franciscan monk, a Benedictine monk, an ordinary priest, a medical student, and a practicing physician. He is noted as the author of Gargantua and Pan-tagruel, a work descriptive of the education and lives of a supposed father and son. The pretended biographical feature serves as an excuse on which to string a medley of jokes, witticisms, bits of description, serious dissertations on education, marriage, and social instruction in general, all in a vein of exaggeration, reminding the reader of Don Quixote . The work appeared from time to time by books. Lyons and Paris were the principal places of publication. Rabelais' writings were frowned upon by the church and by the leaders of society, but had an immense sale. He himself boasted that more copies were sold in two months than of the Bible in nine years. Although his writings now seem tedious and coarse beyond description, sixty editions were published within a comparatively short period of time. Numerous versions appeared in English, French, Italian, and other European languages. Rabelais was a noted Greek and Latin student. He was indebted, of course, to all literature that preceded him; nevertheless, his writings are a mine of words and phrases in which even Shakespeare did not hesitate to delve. He has been variously called the apostle of sound education, the wicked Rabelais, the atheist, the greatest wit of Europe, a dirty old blackguard, a thinker and preacher, etc. Lord Bacon called him "the great jester of France." Rabelais coined or at least gave currency to many phrases, such as: To leap into the dark. Rob Peter to pay Paul. Merry as crickets. The sinews of war. Feather one's nest. A flea in the ear. To hit the nail on the head. Save your bacon. Plain as the nose on a man's face. Hearts of oak. Thereby hangs a tale. Other fish to fry. Spare your breath to cool your porridge. Three bites of a cherry. Done to a T. The Devil was sick,--the Devil a monk would be; The Devil was well,--the Devil a monk was he.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRANÇOIS, a French satirist; born in Chinon, Touraine, about 1483. He was at first a monk, but having been punished for some indecorous 2000 000 FRANCOIS RABELAIS behavior, he quitted the Benedictine order, studied medicine at Montpellier, and for a time practiced as a physician. He subsequently obtained the rectory of Meudon. He was author of several books; but the only one by which he is known is the romance called "The Lives, Heroic Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel," an extravagant satire upon monks, priests, popes, and pedants, in which much obscenity and absurdity are blended with learning, wit, and humor. Rabelais was a conscientious teacher of his flock, his purse always open to the needy, and his medical skill was employed in the service of his parish. He died in 1553. RABIES. See HYDROPHOBIA.