THE APOTHECARY AND THE TAILOR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENTRIES IN THE PHYSICAL DICTIONARIES OF 1655 AND 1657
THE APOTHECARY AND THE TAILOR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENTRIES IN THE PHYSICAL DICTIONARIES OF 1655 AND 1657

Summary/Abstract: Two short medical (‘physical’) dictionaries appeared in English in 1655 (accompanying a translation of Jean Renou) and 1657 (accompanying a translation of Lazare Rivière), the first to employ the word dictionary in their titles. The lexicographers concerned saw their tasks somewhat differently. Whether and how closely they are related has been disputed; this study undertakes to resolve these questions by examining the apparent relationship between their entries. Comparing a number of entries and classifying the similarities and differences, first for verbs, and then for the entries they actually share reveals first, that the Rivière glossary was strictly intended as a guide to the translation text and was based on that alone and, second, that the Renou dictionary made considerable use of Rivière, but was not heavily dependent, making use of other sources as well.

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