Beschreibung:

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... London: printed by W. Strahan for J. & P. Knapton [and others], 1755-1755. First edition. Two volumes, finley bound in full modern polished panelled calf to period style, the spines richly tooled and lettered in gilt, all edges sprinkled red. 16 1/8 x 10 inches (41 x 25 cm); titles in red and black, collating volume I: A-K^(2) a-d^(2) (-d2 as usual) ^(2)B-13A^(2), with terminal singleton 13B-14Z (12 O and P missigned); volume II: *^(2) (-*1, blank?) 15A-31C^(2), with singletons at the end of alphabetical sections as follows: 17A-17Z, 22F-Z and 27E-Z; a complete copy Some creasing to the upper right corner of the first twenty leaves in the first volume, some minor toning and foxing, occasional nominal stains in extreme margins, in all a fresh and unwashed copy. With the partially erased signature of Frederick Nicolay at the head of the titles (his collection sold 1809 by Leigh and Sotheby); later by Lord Coleridge (1851-1927), with his 1903 bookplate, and subsequently sold (1980s?) by Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery Inc. Of Johnson's dictionary, an epic accomplishment, Noah Webster wrote "Johnson's writings had, in the field of philology, the effect which Newton's had on mathematics" (see Printing and the Mind of Man, 201). PMM also calls this "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography." Of the edition of about 2000 copies, roughly half now survive. Printing and the Mind of Man 201; Courtney, pp. 54-5; Chapman & Hazen, pp. 137-8; Rothschild 1237; Fleeman I, p. 410. C