[BLOUNT, Thomas]

Glossographia: Or A Dictionary, Interpreting the Hard Words of Whatsoever Langauge, Now Used in Our Refined English Tongue; With Etymologies, Definitions, and Historical Observations on the Same. Also the Terms of Divinity, Law, Physick, Mathematicks, War, Music, and Other Arts and Sciences Explicated.

London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, and are to be sold by John Martyn, 1670. 8vo (18cm). Contemporary sprinkled calf, ruled in blind, rebacked, with original red leather spine label, all edges stained red, board edges tooled with gilt; plain endpapers; [16],708,[2]pp Text in two columns; with the final errata leaf. Bookplate of noted zoologist James Glen Mead to pastedown. Sound and clean, with crease to front board, minor expert restoration to one corner, hinges reinforced, crease to title page, but generally Very Good.

Blount was "the first lexicographer of a purely English dictionary to attempt an etymology of words... [he] deserves credit for having introduced the principle into the English dictionary" (Starnes & Noyes, The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson 46). Blount was also the "first English lexicographer to cite the authorities he had consulted" (47). Though billed on the title page as the third edition, 4 prior editions were actually printed in 1656, 1659, and 1661. VANCIL, Catalog of Dictionaries, Word Books, and Philological Texts p.26. ESTC R6021. LOWNDES I p.221.

Price: $950.00

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