Author Description

This two-volume study presents for the first time a census of printed monolingual glossaries and dictionaries published from 1475-1640, as well as a systematic bibliographical description of these works. The volumes are designed as a specialized preliminary examination of the growth and development of English lexicography in the Early Modern English period. Schäfer includes lemmatical material listed alphabetically and documented according to the criteria of the Oxford English Dictionary, additions and corrections never before published, and detailed explanations of how the material was assembled lexigraphically. In addition, more than 5,000 main entries comprise neologisms, antedatings, post-datings, unregistered senses, additional citations and corrections. Schäfer discusses in detail the question of lexical transmission through sources overlooked in the OED.