French-English Bilingual Dictionaries in the 16th and 17th Centuries: Achievements and Innovations by French-Speaking Protestants

French-English Bilingual Dictionaries in the 16th and 17th Centuries: Achievements and Innovations by French-Speaking Protestants1 Monique C. Cormier and Aline Francœur t: 'he Huguenots' contribution to industries old and new — crafts and trades, especially clock making,jewelery and silk, as well as banking and finance — is well known, but their impact on intellectual pursuits has received somewhat less attention. Of course, their tremendous contribution to the birth of modern journalism is fairly common knowledge, but few people are aware of the impact of 16th- and 17th-century religious intolerance on the description of the French and English languages, and particularly on the development of bilingual (French-English) lexicography and European lexicography in general. Of the nine bilingual (French-English) dictionaries published in Europe between 1550 and 1700, seven were produced by French-speaking Protestants who settled in England: Claudius Holyband (?-1597), Guy Miège (1644-cl7l8) and Abel Boyer (1667-1729). Their dictionaries are among the most outstanding of the two centuries. As aptly pointed out by Sidney Landau (2001, 46), the history of lexicography is not marked by breath-taking discoveries or amazing bursts of creativity, as is often the case with new scientific or artistic enterprises . Rather, it is an irregular succession of advances in vocabulary and methodology. 'This article revises and expands a paper read at the Third International Huguenot Conference held in September 2002 at the University of Stellenbosch , South Africa. Dictionaries:Journal oftheDictionary Society ofNorth America 25 (2004) 78Monique C. Cormier and Aline Francœur The lexicographers we wish to discuss each contributed, in their own ways, to developing the dictionaries that we now use. Their innovations are very important. Claudius Holyband was the first to compile a French-English dictionary, at a time when the use of the French language was expanding in Europe. Guy Miège was the first to develop a bidirectional dictionary, with a French-English section and an English-French section. Finally, Abel Boyer, whose dictionary remained in publication for over 150 years and has been called the most successful dictionary of all time (Hausmann 1991, 2957), was responsible for a series of methodological innovations, discussed in detail below. In our presentation of each of these lexicographers, we wanted to consider certain very specific questions. First, who were they? Second , what motivated them to produce dictionaries and for whom were their dictionaries compiled? Finally, what made their reference works milestones in the development of bilingual (French-English) lexicography ? European lexicography in the 16th and 17th centuries is characterized by complex connections among various dictionaries. It is extremely difficult to determine which existing dictionaries inspired lexicographers of the time when they compiled their own works: it may be that some innovations were "borrowed" from dictionaries in other languages. Here, we discuss those innovations in light of FrenchEnglish bilingual lexicography and not the lexicography of other European languages. Claudius Holyband2 The birth date of Claudius Holyband is unknown, but we do know that he was born in Moulins, in the Bourbonnais province of central France. A devout Protestant, Holyband left his birthplace 2The spellings Holliband and Hollyband are also found. In fact, the real name of Claudius Holyband was Claude de Sainliens (or Desainliens) . The decision to anglicize his name shows "that Holyband [...] went so far in assimilating to his new country as to take a new name." (Howatt 2000, 20). The Latin form Claudius a Sancto Vinculo is also encountered. It was under this name that Holyband "was granted letters of denization [...] in January 1566." Moreover, Holyband "appeared in the Register of Aliens for the City of Westminster in 1568 under the name of 'Claudius Hollybrande, scholemaster, denizen'" (Howatt 2000, 19). French-English Bilingual Dictionaries79 around 1562, evidently fleeing the persecution enacted that year against the predominantly Protestant Moulins citizenry (Farrer 1908, 9). He arrived in London in 1564 or 1565s and, three years later, in July 1567, married an English woman named Elizabethe Wylliams (or Williamson). Widowed in July 1578, he was remarried, in October of the same year, to Anne Smithe (Eccles 1986, 57-58) .4 At least nine children were born of these two unions (Eccles 1986, 61). Other than six years of traveling abroad...