A new universal etymological English dictionary: containing not only explanations of the words … with authorities from the best writers… but also their etymologies, from the ancient and modern languages … revised and corrected by Joseph Nicol Scott, M.D.
London: printed for T. Osborne [et al.], 1755. Folio, pp. xviii, [1080]; lexicon in double column, engraved allegorical frontispiece and 12 engraved plates (on 11 sheets); occasional browning and spotting but generally a nice, crisp copy in contemporary full speckled calf neatly rebacked, new red morocco label on gilt-paneled spine. The so-called Scott-Bailey was published in the same year as the first edition of Johnson's dictionary to recapture its waning influence in the dictionary market. Philip B. Gove, in "Notes on Serialization and Competitive Publishing: Johnson's and Bailey's Dictionaries, 1755," Oxford Bib. Soc., 1955 notes: "The attempt of the Bailey proprietors to enter a folio to rival Johnson's great Dictionary remained alive through 1772, three years after Scott's death. The dates of the new title pages, 1764 and 1772, precede respectively by one year those of the third and fourth editions of Johnson." "The revisions and additions are extensive enough to warrant this being regarded as a new work" (Alston). See Starnes & Noyes, chapt. XXII for a full treatment; Alston V, 173. Item #64420
Price: $2,800.00
