Browse Items (13 total)

Thomas Speght of Cambridge was the first to attempt to explicate Chaucerian English. With 2,607 entries, Speght’s glossary was limited in scope, skimpy in its definitions, and marred by inaccuracies. But it was a pioneering overview of an earlier…

John Minsheu traveled extensively and was once imprisoned by Spaniards—a helpful happenstance for an aspiring bilingual lexicographer. Returning to England, he established a language school and began this dictionary, enlisting the help of prisoners…

Skene, a Scotsman, produced the second law dictionary for the English-speaking world. Despite its Latin title, the text of the dictionary is mostly Scots English, with some mongrelized Latin thrown in (as was the habit of lawyers). The book isn’t…

In this 1579 edition, also on loan from Harvard Law, the number of entries grew from 169 to 282. Many of the newly added headwords derive not from Law French but from Old English, as with boote and Burgh English. Hence this edition, along with…

This copy of Rastell is the oldest in North America. It contains 169 alphabetically arranged entries. The English column defines such terms as abbot, abeyance, acceptance, action, accord, acquittal, additions, adjournment, administrator, agreement,…

Rastell’s Exposiciones is a law dictionary with two complete columns: one in English, one in Law French. It isn’t a bilingual dictionary in the conventional sense—with a headword in one language and a definition in another. The English column is…

Elyot, who led a storied life as Henry VIII’s failed emissary to help annul the marriage to Catherine of Aragon, issued the first book ever to be called a dictionary. This 1548 edition was prepared after Elyot’s death by Thomas Cooper, to whom…

Friar Calepino of Bergamo first printed his Dictionarium in 1502. Said to be one of the most dogged lexicographers in history, he produced the most influential of Renaissance dictionaries—and went blind in the effort. Although the first few editions,…

Friar Calepino of Bergamo first printed his Dictionarium in 1502. Said to be one of the most dogged lexicographers in history, he produced the most influential of Renaissance dictionaries—and went blind in the effort. Although the first few editions,…

Friar Calepino of Bergamo first printed his Dictionarium in 1502. Said to be one of the most dogged lexicographers in history, he produced the most influential of Renaissance dictionaries—and went blind in the effort. Although the first few editions,…