Dictionnaire universel de medecine. . . .Translated by Denis Diderot. 6 vols.
James, Robert.
Inspiration for Johnson's Dictionary and the Encyclopedie
James, Robert (1705-76). Dictionnaire universel de medecine . . . traduit de l'anglois . . . par Mrs. [Denis] Diderot (1713-84), Eidous & Toussaint. Revu . . . par M. Julien Busson. . . . [Some articles written by Samuel Johnson (1709-84).] 6 vols., folio. Signature Yy in v. 4 transposed. 66 fine plates of anatomy, surgery, etc. 405 x 250 mm. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gilt spines, rubbed, some hinges cracking. A little light foxing & browning, very slight dampstain affecting a few margins, but overall fine, with good margins. Paris: Briasson . . ., 1746-48.
First Edition in French. See Garrison-Morton 6799. James's medical dictionary was the largest, most exhaustive and most learned written in English before the 19th century. If this were not enough of a distinction, it also has the honor of being midwife to two other encyclopedic works of legendary renown--the Dictionary of the English Language (London, 1755) by Samuel Johnson, and the Encyclopedie of Diderot et al, which began its long publishing history in 1751.
Dr. Robert James and the inimitable Samuel Johnson, were longtime friends. Johnson wrote the dedication to Mead, some articles and some prospectuses for the Medical dictionary, which appeared in English in 3 vols., 1743-45. This was Johnson's first venture into lexicography, and when it was done, he was approached by the customary syndicate of booksellers, who engaged him for a dictionary of English, which when published, was the dictionary of English, and the arbiter of literary usage for the next century.
The same thing happened to Denis Diderot, who was scraping along with commissions here and there until he got a chance to work on the French translation of the estimable medical dictionary of Robert James. This was his most important early work, and the most significant, for it gave him the idea to produce the Encylopedie, and the clout with the publishers to do it. Thus the greatest literary production of the Enlightenment owes much to an English physician, whose usual claim to fame is said to be his powder that (possibly) killed Oliver Goldsmith. Perhaps more important, and not so well explored, is the role James' medical dictionary played in educating Diderot in science, particularly in shaping the naturalistic thought that he championed against the deism of Voltaire, and which informed his greatest original contributions to literature. In conjunction with his translating assignment, Diderot enrolled in anatomy and physiology classes, which were the beginning of a science self-education that he long pursued. His first truly original work, the Lettre sur les aveugles of 1749, dealt with the problem of sensation and knowledge. See Printing and the Mind of Man 200, 201. Waller 5112. Blake 233. Not in Osler, Cushing or Heirs of Hippocrates.
Book Id: 7543
Price: $7,500.00