Lot 107: ESTIENNE, Robert (1503-1559). Dictionarium latinogallicum. Paris: Robert Estienne, September 1538.

ESTIENNE, Robert (1503-1559). Dictionarium latinogallicum. Paris: Robert Estienne, September 1538.

2o (301 x 206 mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, large criblé floral initials, double column, Latin text in roman type, French text in italic. (Staining to title, occasional marginal dampstaining, small marginal wormhole through quires E-H, lacking final blank.) 18-century calf, spine gilt in compartments, red-stained edges (lacking lettering-piece, some light wear to joints and edges.) Provenance: "Degeres fils" (18-century signature on title).

RARE FIRST EDITION OF ROBERT ESTIENNE'S FIRST BILINGUAL DICTIONARY, published as a successor to his pioneering and hugely successful Latin Thesaurus (1531), and employing the same innovative lexicological principles: "contrary to the practice of his predecessors, he based his vocabulary exclusively on classical authors... he clarified the meaning of the words by citing reputable authorities... and he illustrated the correct usage of words and phrases by ample quotations from classical sources" (PMM). The present dictionary, enlarged editions of which appeared in 1543, 1546, and 1549 (in a French-Latin version), served as the model for later sixteenth-century Latin-German, -Flemish, and -English dictionaries. Adams S-1803; PMM 62b; Renouard Estienne p. 46.4.