407d Cooper, Thomas. (1517-1594) Thesaurus Lingvae Romanae & Britannicae, tam accurate congestus, ut nihil pene in eo desyderari possit, quod vel Latine complectatur amplissimus Stephani Thesaurus, vel Anglice, toties aucta Eliotae Bibliotheca: opera & industria Thomae Cooperi Magdalenesis. Quid fructus ex hoc Thesauro studiosi possint excerpere, & quam rationem secutus author sit in Vocabulorum interpretatione & dispositione, post epistolam demonstratur. Accessit Dictionarium Historicum & poeticum propria vocabula Virorum, Mulierum, Sectarum, Populorum, Orbium, Montium, & caeterorum locorum complectens, & in his iucundissimas & omnium cognitione dignissimas historiae.

London: [Printed by H. Denham], 1578

$1,500

Folio, 8 x 12 in. Third edition.This work was first printed in 1565 and was followed by editions in 1573 and 1578. [π]6, A1-Y6, 2A-2Y6, 3A-3Y6, 4A-4Y6, 5A-5Y6, 6A1-6Y6, 7D1-7O6, 7P1-7Q4 (Dictionarium Historicum begins on 7D2). L3 is mis-signed as K3 and O2 is mis-signed as O3.This copy is bound in seventeenth century paneled calf with the bookplate of the Earl of Ilchester. The head of the spine is chipped with loss of about one inch square, front and rear boards slightly rubbed. This is a generally clean copy but has some problems: half of the title-page has been torn off and is replaced in modern facsimile, [π]3 is heavily stained and chipped with the loss of a word or two, a1-c3 has one wormhole that affects one-half inch of the text with the loss of a word or two on each page.

Cooper, in addition to his controversial and historical works, (he completed Lanquet’s Chronicle and became embroiled in two of the greatest controversies involving ecclesiastical polity of the sixteenth century in England: the Jewel/Harding exchanges and the “Martin Marprelate” controversy) his expanded and corrected edition of Eliot’s dictionary appeared in 1552 and 1559. He then went to work on what the DNB calls “his greatest literary work” the present Thesaurus Lingvae Romanae & Britannicae According to the DNB this work “delighted Queen Elizabeth so much that she expressed her determination to promote the author as far as lay in her power.”

This Latin/English dictionary is of great interest for anyone curious about the uses of early modern Latin and English, their intersections and peculiarities. It captures both languages in a snapshot, and abounds with English idiomatic phrases, axioms, and vocabulary that seem at once familiar and remote. The Thesaurus also serves as a valuable reference work for the Latin that was in use in sixteenth century England.

STC 5688