JOHNSON | A Dictionary of the English Language..., 1755

From the Library of the Earls of Haddington

JOHNSON, SAMUEL

A Dictionary of the English Language... for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman, C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755

folio (414 x 252mm.), 2 volumes, FIRST EDITION, titles printed in red and black, 12O signed 11O and 12P signed 16P, contemporary speckled calf with new spines, red specked edges, minor browning and spotting, lacking gathering C, pencil sketch to margin of 29R1 and marginal repairs to gathering 31C

The first great endeavour of English lexicography, the standard authority on the language for 150 years, and one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship of all time.

"Dr Johnson performed with his Dictionary the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (PMM)

LITERATURE:

PMM 201; Rothschild 1237; Courtney and Nichol Smith p. 54

PROVENANCE:

Streatfield family of Chiddingstone, armorial bookplates

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