[RENDANCE] Early Dictionaries

This is a bibliography of early dictionaries that I have found useful in Renaissance dance reconstruction. A bibliography of useful modern dictionaries of, or containing, period words follows.

-- Andrew Draskoy

Period Dictionaries

- Blount, Thomas: Glossographia
1656.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, Menston, (Yorks.), 1969.

- Bullokar, John: An English Expositor: teaching the interpretation of the hardest words in our language
J. Legatt, 1616.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, Menston, (Yorks.), 1967.
Facsimile: Anglistica & America, 1971.
Hard-word dictionary

- Cockeram, Henry: English Dictionarie: or, an interpreter of hard English words
Eliot's Court Press for N. Butter, 1623.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, Menston, (Yorks.), 1968.

- Cotgrave, Randle: A dictionarie of the French and English tongues, 1611.
London, A. Islip, 1611.
Facsimile of 1st edition Scolar Press, Menston, (Yorks.), 1968.

- Desainlains, Claude: A dictionarie French and English.
London, 1593.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, Menston, (Yorks.), 1970.

- Florio, John: Queen Anna's New World of Words
Printed by Melch. Bradwood, for Edw. Blount and William Barret, London:1611.
Facsimile: Scolar Press Limited, Menston (England) 1968.

Electronic transcription of dance-relevant terms:
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~andrew/rendance/florio.html

- Minsheu, John: Dictionarie in Spanish and English
E. Bollifant, 1599.
EMEDD
Spanish-English bilingual dictionary

- Nicot, Jean: Thresor de la langue françose, tant ancienne que moderne.
Paris, David Douceur, 1606.
Electronic version: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/TLF.html

- Palsgrave, John: Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse
R. Pynson (ca. 1524); completed by J. Haukyns, July 18, 1530.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, 1969.
EMEDD
French grammar; bilingual vocabularies grouped by part of speech

- Thomas, William: Principal Rules of the Italian Grammar
T. Berthelet, 1550.
Facsimile: Scolar Press, 1968.
EMEDD
Italian grammar; bilingual dictionary

Modern Dictionaries containing Period Vocabulary

- Battaglia, Salvatore: Grande dizionario della lingua italiana.
Unione tipograficoeditrice torinese, Torina, 1961-

Not yet complete, this multi-volume dictionary is the Italian counterpart of the OED.

- Faure, L.: Dictionnaire Historique de L'ancien langage François
Niort, 1875-1882.

- Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsches Wörterbuch
Verlag von S. Hirzel, Leipzig, 1854-1997.

- Huguet, Edouard: Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle.
Libraire Ancienne Èdouard Champion, Paris, 1925-1967.

- Lewis, Robert E. (managing ed.): Middle English Dictionary
The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1956-1998.

- Simpson, J.A., & E.S.C. Weiner: Oxford English Dictionary
2nd edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989.

- Real Academia Española: Diccionario Historico de la Lengua Española
Imprata Aguire.-General Álvarez de Castro, Madrid, 1960-1996.

Incomplete. Unfortunatlely, they've only done "A" and started in on "B".

Turn back to the Renaissance Dance page.

Last modified on September 10th, 1998 by Andrew Draskóy, andrew@mun.ca