A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE BY SAMUEL JOHNSON 1785 LEATHER BOUND
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[JOHNSON, SAMUEL]. A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the Words are deduced from their Originals, and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples from the best Writers. To which are prefixed, A History of the Language, and An English Grammar. London: printed for J. F. & C. Rivington, L. Davis, T. Payne & Son, T. Longman, B. Law [and 21 others], M.DCC.LXXXV. [1785].
The sixth edition (the first London quarto edition and the the first printing to include a portrait of the author). Complete in two volumes; leather-bound; 4to (28.5cm x 23cm); unpaginated. English text in triple columns. Rebound in full calf gilt; half title in volume I (not called for in vol II); frontispiece portrait of Johnson (after Reynolds). Condition: Good to very good. Collated complete. Bindings tight and secure with the hinges and joints perfectly intact. Some light scuffing to covers. Interiors well-preserved with some traces of light scattered foxing. A handsome set.
Notes: An attractive example of the first authorised quarto edition of one of the greatest accomplishments in lexicography. This sixth edition, published in the year following Johnson's death, features the complete text with the author's final corrections (printed from Samuel Johnson's own corrected copy of the 1773 fourth folio edition, which he bequeathed to Sir Joshua Reynolds). [Fleeman 55.4D/8; Alston V 186; ESTC T116655].