Details
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language. London: W. Strahan for J. & P. Knapton, T. & T. Longman and others, 1755.
2 volumes, 2° (442 x 270mm). Titles printed in red and black, gatherings 12O and 12P in vol.I missigned 11O and 16P. (Old dampstaining to upper outer corners of most preliminary leaves in vol.I, 18K1 and 26A2 in vol.II torn and neatly repaired.) Contemporary marbled boards, uncut (skilfully rebacked with speckled sheep, morocco lettering-pieces on spines, boards scuffed and rubbed).
A FINE UNCUT COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. "Dr Johnson performed with his Dictionary the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography ... It is the dictionary itself which justifies Noah Webster's statement that 'Johnson's writings had, in philology, the effect which Newton's discoveries had in mathematics'" (PMM 201). Rothschild 1237; Courtney p.55. (2)
2 volumes, 2° (442 x 270mm). Titles printed in red and black, gatherings 12O and 12P in vol.I missigned 11O and 16P. (Old dampstaining to upper outer corners of most preliminary leaves in vol.I, 18K1 and 26A2 in vol.II torn and neatly repaired.) Contemporary marbled boards, uncut (skilfully rebacked with speckled sheep, morocco lettering-pieces on spines, boards scuffed and rubbed).
A FINE UNCUT COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. "Dr Johnson performed with his Dictionary the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography ... It is the dictionary itself which justifies Noah Webster's statement that 'Johnson's writings had, in philology, the effect which Newton's discoveries had in mathematics'" (PMM 201). Rothschild 1237; Courtney p.55. (2)