Books

2 vols. Large 4to. (27.5 x 21.5 cm). Contemporary full marbled calf rebacked preserving original spines with gilt rules and complementary gilt-lettered red and blue morocco labels, renewed grey endpapers. Engraved portrait frontispiece of Johnson after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Ex libris Thomas Vincent with his engraved armorial bookplate to front pastedown of each volume. Bindings lightly rubbed, partial losses to labels, very occasional light scattered foxing, generally a very good, solid set. First published in 1755, Johnson's Dictionary has at various times been called "the most important British cultural monument of the eighteenth century" (Hitchings); "the only dictionary [of the English language] compiled by a writer of the first rank " (Robert Burchfield); "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (PMM); and the first genuinely descriptive dictionary in any language. "Johnson's writings had, in philology, the effect which Newton's discoveries had in mathematics" (Webster).

Samuel Johnson's 'A Dictionary of the English Language' is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. First published on 15 April 1755, the dictionary offered comprehensive definitions and illustrative examples of usage.