The Dictionary

Los 64
27.06.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Verkauft
$ 6 300
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
Archiv
Die Auktion ist abgeschlossen. Es können keine Gebote mehr abgegeben werden.
Archive
ID 1236294
Los 64 | The Dictionary
Schätzwert
$ 8 000 – 12 000
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language. London: Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton, et al., 1755.

A lovely copy of the first edition of Johnson’s magnum opus, "a monument of industry and talent [and] the unrivalled authority for the English language" (Courtney and Smith p.54). Johnson’s achievement in compiling his great Dictionary was immediately recognized. In one of its earliest reviews, Adam Smith commended it, and Boswell called it a work of "superior excellence"; it was the only work Johnson called "my Book" (Letters I: 71). Not only did he provide lucid definitions and codify spelling but he provided c. 114,000 illustrative quotations, providing a compendium of excerpts from canonical works of English literature, meaning that even today it "may still be consulted for instruction as well as pleasure" (PMM). Noah Webster claimed that it was to language what Newton’s discoveries were to mathematics. Johnson's great literary labor, produced in the garret of his house in Gough Square, was published in 2,000 copies, and Fleeman estimated that over half may survive. The present copy is with variant setting b for 19D (press figure 5) and variant setting b for 24O (no press figure). Courtney & Smith, p. 54-55, Fleeman 55.4D/1a, Rothschild 1237, William B. Todd, "Note 242: Variants in Johnson's Dictionary, 1755", in The Book Collector, 14, Summer 1965, pp. 212-214.

Two volumes, folio (420 x 241mm). Titles in red and black, woodcut tail-pieces (intermittent mild browning, a handful of small marginal tears/losses with one closed tear touching about nine lines). Contemporary mottled calf (rebacked with original spines laid down).
Adresse der Versteigerung CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
Vereinigtes Königreich
Vorschau
13.06.2024 – 27.06.2024
Telefon +44 (0)20 7839 9060
E-Mail
Aufgeld see on Website
NutzungsbedingungenNutzungsbedingungen

Mehr von Creator

A Dictionary of the English Language
A Dictionary of the English Language
$100
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784)
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784)
£6 000
The Plays of William Shakespeare
The Plays of William Shakespeare
$100
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
$100
A Journey into North Wales, in the Year 1744
A Journey into North Wales, in the Year 1744
$100
A Dictionary of the English Language
A Dictionary of the English Language
$5 000
Thoughts in Prison: In Five Parts
Thoughts in Prison: In Five Parts
$500
Marmor Norfolciense
Marmor Norfolciense
$1 400

Verwandte Begriffe

?>