Bibliotheca classica; or, a classical dictionary, containing a full account of all the proper names mentioned in antient authors. Who which are subjoined, tables of coins, weights, and measures, in use among the Greeks and Romans
Dublin: William M'kenzie, No. 33, College-Green, 1792. First Dublin edition, following those of Reading, 1788 and London 1792); 8vo, unpaginated text in double column; contemporary full calf, gilt ruled spine, morocco label; boards rubbed and bumped with large patch stripped on upper board, joints starting, tidestains, the occasional marginal annotation; two 19th-century gift inscriptions, one from Reverend Silas McKeen of Bradford, VT; good. Printing and the Mind of Man 236 (citing the first edition of Reading, 1788): "Lempriere's Classical Dictionary is the first of a new kind of manual: the rendering of a body of knowledge not easily accessible in any other form into a series of alphabetical articles for the use of those who lack the time or the learning to seek out the sources. Dictionaries, literary, geographical, and biographical there had been, and encyclopaedias; but Lempriere's is the first specialist work designed as a substitute for, rather than as an aid to, learning. It was, in fact, an early 'cram-book' ... The Oxford Companion series is one of its most distinguished descendants ... Keats owned a copy, and it was the source of much of his knowledge of Latin and Greek mythology; one can sometimes even see the genius of his lines in Lempriere's humble but lively prose." ESTC locates only 4 copies of this Dublin edition: British Library; National Trust; Countway Library of Medicine; and Johns Hopkins, to which OCLC adds Brown and Free Library of Philadelphia. Item #60611
Price: $750.00
