[Rarebooks] fa: THE ROYAL ENGLISH DICTIONARY 1741 (1761) - DANIEL FENNING - First edition

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, June 7. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/qfzvn76

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Daniel Fenning: The Royal English Dictionary: or, A Treasury of the English Language… To which is prefixed, a Comprehensive Grammar of the English Tongue. London: Printed for S. Crowder, and Co., at the Looking-glass, in Pater-noster Row, MDCCXLI [1741, but actually 1761]. FIRST EDITION. Large 8vo (21.5 cm) bound in modern polished calf, spine with raised bands and gilt lettering; viii, 16, [922] pp. Alston V, 227; ESTC T133357.

The date on the title-page is a printer's error and should read 1761, not 1741, as attested to by the approbation leaf opposite in which  George III grants Fenning license to publish, and which is dated "the Third Day of July, 1761, in the First Year of Our Reign." The uncommon first edition of Fenning's popular dictionary, which saw a second edition in 1763 and a seventy-first edition by 1823. ESTC locates only three copies of this first edition in the UK and six in the U.S. Binding with a few small scuffs, sunning to the spine; small loss to bottom corner of the title page; darkening to the edges of the text block; occasional mild damp-staining to the page edges; a small area of worming through the third quarter of the text, affecting some letters but not overall legibility; old tissue repair to one leaf; a few scattered small spots and stains; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound.

Contains a "concise and comprehensive grammar" as well as explanations of terms used in algebra, architecture, botany, gardening, gunnery, hydraulics, mathematics, navigation, optics, printing, surgery, and a host of other fields. Little is known of Fenning, but the title-page credits him with having written books on spelling, arithmetic, algebra and the Use of Globes.