Samuel Johnson's important contribution to the standardisation of the English language, in the original mottled calf boards.

'He codified the spelling of English words; he gave full and lucid definitions of their meanings... and he adduced extensive and apt illustrations from a wide range of authoritative writers' (PMM). An excellent example in contemporary mottled calf of this enduring classic, a mainstay of any serious collection.

With over 40,000 definitions and more than 100,000 quotations compiled by the most prolific writer of the eighteenth century, and arguably one of the most distinguished men of letters in English history. A 'Dictionary', Johnson informs us, is a 'book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning; a lexicon a vocabulary; a word-book'.

First published in 1755, the project to find a replacement to the generally deficient Dictionarium Britannicum of Nathan Bailey had been proposed to Johnson ten years earlier by a group of booksellers headed by Robert Dodsley. Whereas the best international dictionaries then available had been sponsored and composed by public bodies of learned men, the Dictionary of the English Language was from the beginning a commercial enterprise, and the work of a single person. Johnson, operating out of his house in Gough Street, was able to complete the venture in just 9 years.

'The Dictionary left an immense mark on its age. It soon became recognised as a work of classical standing, and in spite of some minor blemishes it has never lost its historical importance as the first great endeavour of its kind. Notable above all for definitions of pith and occasional wit, the dictionary was even more original in the way in which every word, as Johnson put it, had its history. Each entry is organised under the headword to exemplify graduated senses of a term, a procedure which redirected the course of English lexicography' (ODNB).

With provenance for the politician Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet of Monreith (1845-1937). Maxwell was elected Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire in 1880 in the Conservative interest, and served as Junior Lord of the Treasury during the Salisbury administration. A keen antiquarian, Maxwell was President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Chairman of the National Library of Scotland, and Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, amassing an impressive library at his seat of Monreith House.

Third edition; 2 vols; folio (43 x 28 cm); title-pages printed in red and black, bookplate to front pastedown of each vol., conservator's ticket to front pastedown of vol. I, occasional light toning; contemporary mottled calf, rebacked preserving the original spines which have been paid down, labels renewed, corners restored, very good.

ESTC T118173; Fleeman 55.4D/3.