Plagiarism in Spanish Dictionaries of the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries

Abstract

Plagiary of the written word is probably as old as writing. Pliny's remarks in the Preface to his Natural History are evidence that in classic Roman times, at least, the practice was a prevailing one. He says: You will deem it a proof of this pride of mine that I have prefaced these volumes with the names of my authorities. I have done so because it is, in my opinion, a pleasant thing and one that shows an honourable modesty, to own to those who were the means of one's achievements, not to do as most of the authors to whom I have referred did. you must know that when collating authorities, I have found that the most professedly reliable and modem writers have copied the old authors word for word, without acknowledgment...Generally speaking, Pliny's high ethical standard remains little more than an ideal until the beginnings of modem scholarship. Certainly, for the period and subject with which this paper is concernedSpanish dictionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-plagiarism is the rule. Ferdinand Brunot offers a reliable generalization in this regard in volume three of his Histoire de la langue franqaise des origines a 1900, in which he asserts: 1i arrive aussi et surtout, ' cette 6poque oti la contrefagon est d'usage, pour ne pas dire de regle, qu'un ouvrage ne soit qu'un long plagiat, sans un mot original; vous croyez trouver un dictionnaire, et vous en retrouvez un autre, copi' mot pour mot. D'autres fois on aura pris un dictionnaire bilingue, comme ils le sont tous, on y aura ajout6 la traduction en une troisikme langue.'2 A more specific observation on plagiary is that of Damaso Alonso, which appeared in an article touching only incidentally on this subject, published in 1931 in the Revista de Filologia Espaiiola. Alonso berates the English lexicographer Minsheu in these terms: John Minsheu, poliglota pedantesco, infatigable y poco escrupuloso, . . . en su primer libro de espafiol, A Spanish Grammar, Londres, 1599, no hace mas que ampliar la obra de Percyvall, deuda que ya reconoce en la portada. (Pormenor de honradez que no le impide expoliar a otros muchos autores sin citarlos). . . . La falta de honradez de Minsheu le lleva, no ya a aprovechar la doctrina ajena, sino a copiar al pie de la letra.3 Although this citation refers only to Minsheu's edition of Percyvall's4 Grammar, it could apply almost equally to his enlargement of Percyvall's Spanish Dictionary, which Minsheu published together with the Grammar. Alonso's statement is cited here not so much because of the evidence of plagiary that it adduces, as because it reveals his mistaken belief that the practice was exceptional at this time. Alonso's judgment of Minsheu is, indeed, unduly harsh, for we note that Minsheu does, at least, acknowledge his debt to Percyvall, and this fact is, as we shall see presently in treating other authors, far from being, to use Alonso's phrase, un pormenor de honradez. In justice to Minsheu, we should read his own words, which I take from the preface to his augmentation of Percyvall's Dictionary: For the learners more readie finding out of wordes in this Dictionarie, I bestowed a good deale of time and paines in bringing the wordes into the Alphabet I heere use in this book differing