- 318
Johnson, Samuel
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
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Description
- A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the Words are Deduced from their Originals, and Illustrated in their different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To which are prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. London: Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Homes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755
- paper, ink, leather
2 vols, folio (16 1/4 x 10 1/8 in.; 414 x 257 mm). Title-pages printed red and black, woodcut tailpieces, second definition for "earsh" added by a contemporary hand to foot of 7R2v; gatherings B–F of preliminaries and last few leaves of second volume somewhat dampstained, occasional light staining or spotting, small holes to 19Z1 and 22E1.2 costing a few letters, a very few scattered marginal tears, some corners turned. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, attractively rebacked and recornered with calf, early red-sprinkled edges; extremities quite rubbed.
Provenance
Henry Tomkinson (signature, 1761, on title-page of first volume) — Davie Bassett (armorial bookplate)
Literature
Cordell J40; Cordell/Koda 49; Grolier/English 50; Printing and the Mind of Man 201; Rothschild 1237; Todd, "Variants in Johnson's Dictionary, 1755," in The Book Collector 14:212-14
Catalogue Note
FIRST EDITION of the first standard English Dictionary, "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (Printing and the Mind of Man). A very good copy with the text in the first state according to Todd's points 1, 2, 5–7, 11, 15, 17-21.