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This five-volume set includes 280 encyclicals, beginning with Benedict XIV (1740-1758), up to and including Laborem Exercens, which was released by Pope John Paul II on September 14, 1981. One hundred and ten encyclicals, containing 275,000 words, were translated into English especially for this edition. The encyclicals are arranged in chronological order. A full bibliography of commentaries follows each encyclical. A brief introduction to each pontiff highlights the significant accomplishments and important historical details of his papacy. An extensive index to more than 2,500 subjects allows the reader to draw specific details of Church teachings from the encyclicals. What Are Papal Encyclicals? Litterae encyclicae (encyclical letters) are letters that the pope, by his ordinary teaching authority, directs to the entire Christian world for the guidance of spiritual life. An encyclical was originally a circular letter passed on from one to another of the group addressed. Today, the term refers almost exclusively to certain papal documents that differ in form from bulls or briefs and treat matters affecting the Church at large. When papal letters are exhortations on particular needs or are addressed to the archbishops and bishops of particular countries or to designated groups of the hierarchy, they are called epistulae encyclicae (encyclical epistles). The pope normally does not exercise his infallible teaching office through an encyclical, but Catholics are expected to accept its doctrinal content as an expression of the pope's ordinary teaching authority.