HARRIS | Lexicon Technicum, 1704

From the Library of the Earls of Haddington

HARRIS, JOHN

Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciences. London: printed for Dan. Brown, Tim. Goodwin, John Walthoe [&c.], 1704-1710

folio, FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, titles printed in red and black, engraved portrait and 14 plates (8 folding), woodcut diagrams and illustrations, subscribers lists in both volumes, astronomical tables in volume 2, contemporary panelled calf, spines in six compartments lettered in gilt, upper cover of volume one partially detached, corners slightly bumped, edges worn, some leaves browned or with spotting, a few tears to some plates, worming at end

"John Harris, clergyman, mathematician, and (from 1709) secretary of the Royal Society, produced the first English encyclopaedia arranged in alphabetical order. He was the first lexicographer to distinguish between a word-book (dictionary, in modern parlance) and a subject-book (encyclopaedia proper)... His Lexicon Technicum appears to be the first technical dictionary in any language. The most famous of his contributors was Isaac Newton" (PMM).

LITERATURE:

ESTC T142411 & T142408; Henderson p.65 no. 62.0; PMM 171a

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Hamilton (1721-1794), 7th Earl of Haddington, engraved armorial bookplate; thence by descent to the Earls of Haddington

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