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.., 1755. Full Description:

JOHNSON, Samuel. 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..., 1755.

First edition of "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (Printing and the Mind of Man). Two large folio volumes, tall paper copies, (16 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches; 412 x 258 mm.). Unpaginated. Text in double columns. Title-pages printed in red and black. Decorative woodcut tail-pieces.

Full contemporary speckled calf, rebacked to style. Spines with original two red and green calf spine labels, lettered in gilt. Spines ruled in gilt in compartments, six raised bands. Board edges tooled in gilt. Boards a bit rubbed and scuffed, with a bit of wear to some corners. Previous owner's two bookplates on front pastedown of each volume. Previous owner's old ink inscription on front pastedown of each volume, dated 1807. A few instances of minor worming to blank margin, not affecting text. Some toning from glue to edges of pastedowns and blanks. Overall, a very clean and nice set.

"Begun in 1747, and printed over five years, Johnson's Dictionary at once put to shame every other dictionary that had ever been written and set the standard for every dictionary that has been written since. Its genius was at once acknowledged by every hand, and the first edition of two thousand copies was instantly sold out...Perhaps the greatest innovation in Johnson's work was his consistent reliance not on earlier word-lists and dictionaries, not on his own intuition, but on English literature itself—the vast, wonderful treasury of words that, well chosen and properly sorted and accurately quoted, became in itself almost a dictionary of the language. Indeed, after Johnson showed the way by quoting from English literature at every turn, it was even suggested that a great dictionary might be written without definitions at all—if the quotations were plentiful enough and well enough chosen and edited. This insistence on real examples from the real language as it has been really used has informed every serious dictionary every since—from Richardson and Webster to the new OED" (The Collection of The Garden Ltd., Sotheby's New York, November 9 and 10, 1989, lot 148).

Courtney & Nichol Smith, p. 54. Printing and the Mind of Man 201. Rothschild 1237.

HBS 69072.

$15,000.