Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T19:32:46.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - Systems and Centos

Some Eighteenth-Century Dictionaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

By
Roderick McConchie
Edited by
Irma Taavitsainen ,
Turo Hiltunen ,
Jeremy J. Smith  and
Carla Suhr
Irma Taavitsainen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Turo Hiltunen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Jeremy J. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Carla Suhr
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Get access

Summary

This chapter considers the characteristics and contexts of three eighteenth-century encyclopaedic dictionaries: Cyclopaedia (1728) by Ephraim Chambers, A medicinal dictionary (1742–45) by Robert James, and The first part of a dictionary of chemistry (1789) by James Keir, especially in relation to their own comments on their intentions. Chambers’s is generalist, while the other two are specialist works on medicine and chemistry. The Cyclopaedia had a long and acclaimed afterlife, while James’s dictionary was translated into French and Italian, but did not reach a second edition in England. Keir’s remained unfinished. An attempt is made to position these works in their larger lexicographical and scientific context, primarily through their paratexts.

Keywords

medicinesystemcentodictionaryencyclopaediaencyclopaedic dictionaryuniversal dictionarychemistryalphabetical order
Type
Chapter
Information
Genre in English Medical Writing, 1500–1820
Sociocultural Contexts of Production and Use
 , pp. 108 - 127
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Wilda. 1984. Between the library and the laboratory: The language of chemistry in eighteenth-century France. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Joseph (1756) Experiments upon Magnesia alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances. In Essays and observations, physical and literary. Read before a society in Edinburgh, and published by them, vol. 2, 157–225.Google Scholar
Blancard, Steven. 1684. A physical dictionary. London: J. D.Google Scholar
Bocast, Alexander K. 2016. Definition in Chambers’s Cyclopaedia: Chambers on definition. Enlightenment Views of Definition 1.1. McLean, VA: Berkeley Bridge Press.Google Scholar
Brock, W. H. 2008. Joseph Priestley, enlightened experimentalist. In Rivers, Isabel & Wykes, David L. (eds.), Joseph Priestley, scientist, philosopher, and theologian, 49–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chambers, Ephraim. 1728. Cyclopaedia: or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences. London: for James and John Knapton et al.Google Scholar
Chambers, Ephraim. 1738. Cyclopaedia: or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences. London: for James and John Knapton et al.Google Scholar
Crosland, Maurice. 2000. Slippery substances: Some practical and conceptual problems in the understanding of gases in the pre-Lavoisier era. In Holmes, Frederic L. & Levere, Trevor H. (eds.), Instruments and experimentation in the history of chemistry, 79–104. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diderot, Denis. n.d. The encyclopedia of Diderot & D’Alambert. n.p.: Michigan Publishing. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/index.html (accessed 27 May 2021).Google Scholar
Erasmus, Desiderius. 1512. De Utraque verborum ac rerum copia [UT De copia]. Paris: Josse Bade.Google Scholar
Harris, John. 1704. Lexicon technicum. London: for Daniel Brown et al.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Frederick, & Ramazzini, Bernado. 1746. A dissertation on endemial diseases […] and the diseases of tradesman. Trans. Dr. James. London: for Thomas Osborne.Google Scholar
James, Robert. [1741]. Proposals for printing A medicinal dictionary. [London]: Society of Booksellers for Promoting Learning.Google Scholar
James, R[obert]. 1743–1745. A medicinal dictionary; including physic, surgery, anatomy, chymistry, and botany, in all their branches relative to medicine. Together with a history of drugs […] With copper plates, 3 vols. London: for T. Osborne.Google Scholar
Johnson, William. 1652. Lexicon chymicum: Cum obscuriorum verborum, et rerum hermeticarum, tum phrasium Paracelsicarum inscriptis ejus. London: William Nealand.Google Scholar
Keir, James. 1789. The first part of a dictionary of chemistry, &c. Birmingham: for Elliot and Kay.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Krista. 2016. Textual curation: Authorship, agency, and technology in Wikipedia and Chambers’s Cyclopædia. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King-Hele, Desmond. 1977. Doctor of revolution: The life and genius of Erasmus Darwin. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Lancashire, Ian. 2002. ‘Dumb significants’ and early modern English definition. In Brockmeier, Jens, Wang, Min, & Olson, David R. (eds.), Literacy, narrative and culture, 131–54. London; New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lonati, Elisabetta. 2017. Communicating medicine: British medical discourse in eighteenth-century reference works. Milan: Ledizioni.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macquer, P.-J. 1766. Dictionnaire de chemie. Paris: Lacombe.Google Scholar
Macquer, Pierre Joseph. 1771. Dictionnaire de chymie. A dictionary of chemistry. Containing the theory and practice of that science, 2 vols. London: for T. Cadell, and P. Elmsly; J. Robson.Google Scholar
Macquer, Pierre Joseph. 1777. A dictionary of chemistry. London: for T. Cadell, and P. Elmsly.Google Scholar
McConchie, Roderick. 2019. Discovery in haste: English medical dictionaries and lexicographers 1547 to 1796. Lexicographica Series Maior 156. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Moilliet, A. 1868. Sketch of the life of James Keir, Esq., F.R.S.: With a selection from his correspondence. London: R. E. Taylor.Google Scholar
Nicholson, William. 1795. A dictionary of chemistry, exhibiting the present state of the theory and practice of that science, its application to natural philosophy, the processes of manufactures, metallurgy, and numerous other arts dependant on the properties and habitudes of bodies, in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. London: G. G. and J. Robinson.Google Scholar
Priestland, Neal. 1990. Erasmus Darwin: Philosopher, scientist, physician and poet. Nottingham: Ashbracken.Google Scholar
Priestley, Joseph. 1762. A course of lectures on the theory of language, and universal grammar. Warrington: W. Eyres.Google Scholar
Quincy, John. 1719. Lexicon medico-physicum. London: Andrew Bell et al.Google Scholar
Schofield, Robert E. 1963. The Lunar Society of Birmingham: A social history of provincial science and industry in eighteenth-century England. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smeaton, William A. 2000. Platinum and ground glass: Some innovations in chemical apparatus by Guyton de Morveau and others. In Holmes, Frederic L. & Levere, Trevor H. (eds.), Instruments and experimentation in the history of chemistry, 211–37. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Barbara M. D., & Moilliet, J. L.. 1967. James Keir of the Lunar Society. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 22: 144–54.Google Scholar
Society of Gentlemen. 1754. A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences, 4 vols. London: for W. Owen.Google Scholar
Trotter, Thomas.1797–1803. Medicina Nautica; An essay on the diseases of seamen. 3 vols. London: T. Cadell et al.Google Scholar
Woodcock, Leslie V. 2005. Phlogiston theory and chemical revolutions. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry 30(2): 63–9.Google Scholar
Wright, Alexander, & McConchie, R. W.. In press. A medicinal dictionary (1743–45) by Robert James: an Enlightenment reference work. In Loveland, Jeff Schmitt, & Stéphane (eds.), Specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias, 1650–1800: A tribute to Frank Kafker. Oxford Studies in the Enlightenment. London: Liverpool University Press for the Voltaire Foundation for Enlightenment Studies.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×