Glossographia Anglicana Nova (1719, second edition)
With the Gilman family "black leg" Cilmin Troed-Ddu bookplate, and signatures
Author
Publisher
Printing Details
Second edition. Hardback, full leather with Cambridge style panels and five raised bands and gilt titling to spine. 20.5 × 12.5cm, unpaginated. The main body of text printed in double columns.
This copy with the family bookplate of Gilman, complete with the black leg in the top left quarter. This black leg indicates lineage from the9th-century Welsh chieftain Cilmin Troed-Ddu (Cilmin of the Black Leg), head of one of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales. According to Welsh legend, Cilmin entered a demon's cave to retrieve a sacred book. As he escaped across a running stream to safety, the demon caught him by his leg, leaving it permanently blackened and charred. The book has also been signed twice by a Samuel Gilman and dated 1720. Additionally, it appears someone in the same hand has written a few short notes on the bookplate, and it reads "Gilman: Argent / the Leg couped / at the Thigh Sable".
Full title: Glossographia Anglicana Nova: or, A Dictionary, Interpreting Such Hard Words of Whatever Language, as are at Present Used in the English Tongue, with their Etymologies, Definitions, &c
A rare early edition of this dictionary which catered to the Enlightenment-era boom in scientific discovery. In addition to traditional "hard words" (foreign, legal terms, and literary jargon), it placed unprecedented emphasis on scientific, mathematical, anatomical, and mechanical terminology. It also has the distinction of being the first dictionary to employ woodcuts, used here to illustrate heraldic entries.
The authorship is unknown, though at times thought to be Thomas Blount but Blount is acknowledged in the preface along with Edward Phillips and Elisha Coles. This second edition added approximately 3000 words to the text of the first edition (1707), but a pencil inscription opposite the title page notes that [William Thomas] Lowndes declares this the best edition and states it is not Blount.
Condition
The leather is in poor condition, peeling to the front board and heavily rubbed and bumped with some small areas of loss to the edges and corners. The joints are weak but remain attached. The pages have light foxing, and tanning, with occasional marginal loss (mostly to the prelims), the main body of text remaining in good readable condition.
Further pictures available on request.
As of July 2026, books remain duty-free. The price of the book incurs no extra US import fees.
Price
£200.00
