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First edition of the first Dutch dictionary

[DICTIONARY - DUTCH - LATIN - FRENCH].
Thesaurus Theutonicae Linguae. Schat der  Neder-duytscher Spraken. Inhoudende niet alleen de Nederduytsche woorden, maer oock verscheyden redenen ende manieren van spreken, vertaelt ende overgeset int Fransois ende Latijn. Thresor du langage Bas-alman, dict vulgairement Flameng, traduict en François & en Latin.

With woodcut printer's device on title and large woodcut variant device on last blank.

With woodcut printer's device on title and large woodcut variant device on last blank.

With woodcut printer's device on title and large woodcut variant device on last blank.



Antwerp, Ex off. Christ. Plantini, 1573. 4to. 19th century half calf, spine ribbed and gilt, marbled edges. With woodcut printer's device on title and large woodcut variant device on last blank. (568) pp., including last blank.

First edition of the first great Dutch dictionary, with some 40,000 Dutch words and expressions alphabetically arranged and printed in a strong Gothic type, with the translation in French and Latin printed thereafter in smaller Roman type and Italics respectively. The work is dedicated by the publisher to the Board of the St. Ambrosius Guild, a guild of schoolmasters at  Antwerp. This dedication is a very interesting document, in which Plantin discusses at length the origin and progress of the work on the dictionary.
From it we learn that when the Frenchman Plantin came from Paris to Antwerp, he started to compile lists of words in order to master the Dutch language. He soon stopped when he found that suitable lists already existed, such as those by the  schoolmaster Gabriel Meurier, which were then published at  Antwerp by Plantin and Van Waesberghe from 1557 onwards. Plantin however, still cherished his plan to compile a complete Dutch dictionary, and began to look for people to realize such an idea. He found four specialists who started working on Plantin's project without knowing about each other. The first, later identified as Cornelis Kiliaen, delivered his text, which was a translation into Dutch of a Latin-French dictionary, and which was published by Plantin as Dictionarium Tetraglotton in 1562.
Then more difficult times came, but at the end of 1563 the project was continued again as two others, identified by Claes as Gabriel Meurier and Andries Madoets, came forward with their manuscripts and Kiliaen offered new contributions as well. Meurier had also translated an existing dictionary, a French-Latin one this time, but Madoets had collected words both from German and Dutch vocabularies and put the words in Dutch alphabetical order. His text was  then used as basis-text with words and expressions from the other lists added to it. As Madoets continued after 1563 to work on the  project, he can be considered the main compiler of the "Thesaurus". After some initial problems the printing started in 1567, but after 12 sheets were printed Plantin had to stop on account of the printing of the Polyglot Bible which must be given priority. In 1572 the printing was finally resumed and brought to a successful finish at the end of  January, 1573. Nowadays the dictionary is very rare.

Good copy, with on verso of last blank two old manuscript lines of verse in French and in Italian in praise of the work.- (Title strengthened at outer margin; occassionally stained and thumbed).
Voet, Plantin Press, 2310, variant A; Claes, Ned. Woordenboeken, 237; Belg. Typogr. 4500; Adams D 415; STC Dutch p. 197; Pretiosa Neerlandica, Schatten uit de Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde in de Gentse Universiteit, 244; cf. Claes, De bronnen van drie woordenboeken uit de drukkerij van Plantin, thesis Louvain, 1968; not in Cordell Coll. of Dictionnaries.

Related Subjects: 16th Century  Dictionaries  Dutch  Education  Plantin 

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