Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the Making of Heritage by John Considine

Abstract

REVIEWS Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and theMaking ofHeritage. By John Considine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. xiv+ 393 pp. ?55; $99. ISBN 978-0-521-88674-1. The association between dictionaries and the heroic was made explicitly by Henri Estienne, who described thework carried out by his fatherRobert for the Latinae Linguae Thesaurus as 'heroic and indeed Herculean' (p. 2). Similarly, Fr Conor O'Begley referred to the English IrishDictionary (1732), prepared with Hugh Mac Curtin, as giving access to language which was a treasury of 'Heroic Achievements' (p. 2). The adjective 'heroic' appears frequently in post-medieval comments on lexico graphy. This happens because words and word-lists are associated with the notion of 'heritage', and the lexicographer, far from being the 'harmless drudge' referred to by Samuel Johnson, is the recorder of a 'heroic age', to use Giambattista Vico's expression. JohnConsidine's book is admirably erudite and informative. The last fourwords of the title, 'the Making ofHeritage', are central for thewhole enterprise and they illustrate the conceptual framework around which it is constructed. His study is not a systematic, encyclopedic account of lexicography in early modern Europe, nor does it concentrate on strictly linguistic questions (how far do dictionaries represent the lexis of a language, and inwhat ways is lexis linked to other aspects of language, such asmorpho-phonology, syntax, and semantics?). What Considine examines is the formation of dictionaries in the context of cultural history and within the establishment of national traditions in post-medieval Europe. He looks in particular at Latin and Greek, and at Germanic and Romance studies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book has eight chapters. After the introduction (Chapter 1), two chapters discuss 'the classical heritage'. Chapter 2 isdevoted toErasmus, whose Adagia 'is in fact a dictionary, one of the firstbig dictionaries of post-medieval Europe' (p. 24), toGuillaume Bude, who was praised by Joseph Scaliger as 'le plus grand Grec de l'Europe' (p. 31), and to Robert Estienne, author of the formidable three editions (1531, 1536, 1543) of the Latinae linguae thesaurus. Chapter 3 presents Henri Estienne, who stated that talkingGreek, which he had learntbefore Latin, 'is a trade which I have mastered better than talking French' (p. 58). His Thesaurus Graecae linguae (1572) was 'themost comprehensive and sophisticated lexical record of any European language that had ever been published [...]. No more elaborate dictionary of ancient Greek exists even today' (p. 82). Three more chapters are devoted to 'vernacular heritages'. The author lists (pp. 105-12) eight emerging standard vernaculars which are suitable forhis discussion concerning heritage. Italian, French, and Castilian are only briefly touched on as they lend themselves to treatment in synchronic dictionaries emphasizing good usage'. The other five vernaculars are treated more fully.Chapter 4 deals with 8 Reviews Germany and the Netherlands, 1500-1618, and in particular Conrad Gessner (pp. 126-35), Georg Henisch (pp. 135-38), Goropius Becanus (pp. 141-45), and Cornells Kiel (pp. 145-55). Chapter 5 treatsEngland c. 1650, the rediscovery ofOld English in the sixteenth century, and JohnCowell and Henry Spelman, Dutch and English lexicographers ofOld English in the period 1605-50. Chapter 6 deals with England and Scandinavia from 1650 to 1675 (mainlyWilliam Somner, Franciscus Junius,Georg Stiernhielm). Chapter 7 is devoted to post-classical heritages' and theworld of Charles Du Cange. Heritage can here be interpreted on the one hand as decline, from literary Latin to the fragmentation and decay of the earlyMiddle Ages, and on the other as a creative transformation of Latin into the Romance vernaculars. Chapter 8 deals with shared heritages': polyglot and universal dictionaries (Hieronymus Megiser), comparativism and universalism (Cave Beck, George Dalgarno, John Wilkins). This original and instructive volume combines the precision one expects from an antiquarian' account of the progress of lexicology with a contribution to the history of the book in the earlymodern period, concentrating on the perspective provided by the notion of 'heritage' and the insights itoffers from theviewpoint of lexicography, linguistics, and the formation of national cultures. Bringing together these two aspects is generally enlightening, even though sometimes it appears forced and not fully successful. As one reads the volume as a continuous text, trying to...