Claudius Hollyband: A lexicographer speaks his mind
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Gabriele Stein
Abstract
Modern lexicographers strive for total objectivity and the suppression of personal views in their work. This was not the case in earlier dictionaries as we all know from many of Dr. Johnson’s definitions in 1755. Rather like Johnson, the French Huguenot Claudius Hollyband (Claude Desainliens), an outstanding language teacher in London during the second half of the sixteenth century, is very outspoken in his Dictionarie French and English of 1593. His choice of headwords, explanations and examples reveal a strong-minded protestant-humanist who did not disguise his personal views on such matters as religion, women, etc. so that one may wonder who he envisaged as his readers.
Abstract
Modern lexicographers strive for total objectivity and the suppression of personal views in their work. This was not the case in earlier dictionaries as we all know from many of Dr. Johnson’s definitions in 1755. Rather like Johnson, the French Huguenot Claudius Hollyband (Claude Desainliens), an outstanding language teacher in London during the second half of the sixteenth century, is very outspoken in his Dictionarie French and English of 1593. His choice of headwords, explanations and examples reveal a strong-minded protestant-humanist who did not disguise his personal views on such matters as religion, women, etc. so that one may wonder who he envisaged as his readers.
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
