“Weak Shrube or Underwood”: The unlikely medical glossator John Woodall and his glossary
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Jukka Tyrkkö
Abstract
The barber-surgeon John Woodall, best remembered as the first surgeon general of the East India Company, lived a rich and varied life that saw him adventuring abroad several times, building a successful medical practice in London and investing overseas. His guide book for young sea surgeons, A surgions mate (1617), was the first book of its kind and it and its subsequent editions remained in use for more than half a century. The book included an influential three-part medical glossary, which borrowed from earlier lexicons but also introduced new headwords and definitions that were picked up by later medical lexicographers. This article recounts the history of Woodall’s life and books, and illustrates how the paratextual features of his publications reflected his growing professional stature.
Abstract
The barber-surgeon John Woodall, best remembered as the first surgeon general of the East India Company, lived a rich and varied life that saw him adventuring abroad several times, building a successful medical practice in London and investing overseas. His guide book for young sea surgeons, A surgions mate (1617), was the first book of its kind and it and its subsequent editions remained in use for more than half a century. The book included an influential three-part medical glossary, which borrowed from earlier lexicons but also introduced new headwords and definitions that were picked up by later medical lexicographers. This article recounts the history of Woodall’s life and books, and illustrates how the paratextual features of his publications reflected his growing professional stature.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction VII
- Reading Trench reading Richardson 1
- Did Anne Maxwell print John Wilkins’s An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language (1668)? 23
- “As well for the entertainment of the curious, as the information of the ignorant” 57
- Printed English dictionaries in the National Library of Russia to the mid-seventeenth century 95
- “A hundred visions and revisions”: Malone’s annotations to Johnson’s Dictionary 115
- The use of “mechanical reasoning”: John Quincy and his Lexicon physico-medicum (1719) 149
- Paratexts and the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘content marketing’ in the nineteenth century? 165
- The “wants” of women: Lexicography and pedagogy in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury dictionaries* 187
- Claudius Hollyband: A lexicographer speaks his mind 211
- Subscribers and Patrons: Jacob Serenius and his Dictionarium Anglo-Svethico-Latinum 1734 237
- “Weak Shrube or Underwood”: The unlikely medical glossator John Woodall and his glossary 261
- A “florid” preface about “a language that is very short, concise and sententious” 285
- List of contributors 307
- Index 311
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction VII
- Reading Trench reading Richardson 1
- Did Anne Maxwell print John Wilkins’s An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language (1668)? 23
- “As well for the entertainment of the curious, as the information of the ignorant” 57
- Printed English dictionaries in the National Library of Russia to the mid-seventeenth century 95
- “A hundred visions and revisions”: Malone’s annotations to Johnson’s Dictionary 115
- The use of “mechanical reasoning”: John Quincy and his Lexicon physico-medicum (1719) 149
- Paratexts and the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘content marketing’ in the nineteenth century? 165
- The “wants” of women: Lexicography and pedagogy in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury dictionaries* 187
- Claudius Hollyband: A lexicographer speaks his mind 211
- Subscribers and Patrons: Jacob Serenius and his Dictionarium Anglo-Svethico-Latinum 1734 237
- “Weak Shrube or Underwood”: The unlikely medical glossator John Woodall and his glossary 261
- A “florid” preface about “a language that is very short, concise and sententious” 285
- List of contributors 307
- Index 311
