Beschreibung:

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, 2 volumes, 1st edition, printed by W. Strahan et al, 1755, title-pages printed in red and black, printed in double-column, woodcut tail-pieces, gathering 19H in volume 2 in duplicate, occasional light spotting and toning, some unexceptionable staining and marks to a few leaves, pencilled marginalia in a couple of places, several corners slightly creased, gathering 5G in first volume with vertical crease, volume 2 with 19Uii carelessly opened at upper blank corner and lower blank corner of 21Oi torn away, 24Tii and 25Hii in volume 2 each with a closed marginal tear (former affecting several lines of text, latter just clipping text), endpapers sometime renewed, hinges strengthened, bookplate of Richard Adams on front pastedowns, volume 1 with contemporary manuscript shelfmark to front free endpaper, contemporary marbled calf, sometime rebacked, preserving original gilt decorated contrasting leather labels, generally rubbed (with some minor surface wear), covers with gilt flower and bead roll border, and inner scalloped pelmet roll border in blind, folio Courtney & Smith, page 54. Printing and the Mind of Man 201. Rothschild 1237. Samuel Johnson's 'Dictionary', which had taken nine years to complete, was finally published on 15th April 1755 in an edition of 2,000 copies. Containing 40,000 entries and over 116,000 quotations this monumental work remains "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (Printing and the Mind of Man). (2)