The Reception of Abel Boyer's Royal Dictionary in the 18th Century

The Reception of Abel Boyer's Royal Dictionary in the 18th Century1 Monique C. Cormier Université de Montréal "Every other authour may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach , and even this negative recompence has been yet granted to very few." (Johnson 1775, [I]) me 17th century holds a special place in the history of dictionaries . The first monolingual French dictionaries and the first two-way bilingual (French/English) dictionaries were published during that time. Abel Boyer is the second lexicographer, after Guy Miège, to offer a French-English/English-French dictionary for public use. Abel Boyer, a native of Castres, France, left his country when the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685. After spending some time in Holland, Boyer immigrated to England in 1689 and soon became proficient in English. In 1694, encouraged by Princess Anne of 1ThIs article updates and expands upon a paper read at the XVth Biennial Meeting of the Dictionary Society of North America, Boston, United States, on June 9, 2005. This research was funded by the Laurence Urdang-DSNA Award received by the author in 2004. The author wishes to thank Laurence Urdang for his generosity and the Dictionary Society of North America for giving her this award. Dictionaries:Journal ofthe Dictionary Soaety ofNorth America 26 (2005) Reception of Abel Boyer's Royal Dictionary in the 1 8th Century 1 75 Denmark,2 Boyer began to compile the Royal Dictionary. In Two Parts. First, French andEnglish. Secondly, English andFrench, which he dedicated to the Duke of Gloucester.3 Published in London in 1699, the dictionary was very successful when it appeared and throughout the 18th century . Editions bearing Boyer's name were still available in the mid-19th century. One assumes that, for Boyer's dictionary to have been so successful , it must have been very well received when it was published. But was this really the case? How can we tell how the dictionary was received ? Are there any traces of one kind or another of its reception? Reviews of the Royal Dictionary, the reactions of lexicographers who were Boyer's peers, and the interest of several printers and booksellers affirm its significance, tiiough responses, for various reasons, were not always positive, and its public reception must be inferred from the sourcesjust mentioned. Book Reviews in European Periodicals The critical review of books goes back as far as 140 years bce (Roper 1978, 19), but only with the arrival of scholarlyjournals in the 17th century — one of the happiest inventions in the century of Louis Ie Grand, according to journal historian Denis-François Camusat (1734, Book 1,1) — were me first formal reviews published. Camusat (1734, Book 1, 5-6) defined thejournal as an "ouvrage périodique qui paroissant régulièrement au terns marqué, annonce les livres nouveaux ou nouvellement réimprimez, donne une idée de ce qu'ils contiennent , & sert à conserver les découvertes qui se font dans les Sciences ; en un mot, c'est un Ouvrage où l'on recueille tout ce qui arrive 2"I was [...] encourag'd by that great Patroness of Arts and Sciences, the late Queen Anne (then Princess of Denmark) to compose not only a Methodical French Grammar, but likewise a Dictionary, for the use of Her Royal Son," he explained in the preface to the eighth edition of his grammar in 1720 (Boyer 1721, [3]). 3This dedication had a very specific purpose: Boyer wanted to become the French tutor to the young Duke of Gloucester. He never obtained this position , despite what several biographers have written. Graham C. Gibbs (1994, 15) asserted that all of Boyer's publications in the 1690s targeted or were influenced by this objective. 176Monique C. Cormier journellement dans la Republique des Lettres."4 A new vehicle for conveying information, journals fostered communication between the denizens of the Republic of Letters: this community of intellectuals existed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment for the dual purpose of breaking through political and religious barriers and creating a special State (Bots and Waquet 1997, 6). The international language of the Republic of Letters was Latin, and later, French (Waquet 1989, 473). The first scientific...