Dictionarium Saxon-Latino-Anglicum

Annotated copy of Dictionarivm saxonico-latino-anglicum. Voces, phrasesque præcipuas anglo-saxonicas, e libris, sive manuscriptis, sive typis excusis, aliisque monumentis ... collectas; cum latina et anglica vocum interpretatione complectens ... Opera & stvdio Gvliel. Somneri Cantuariensis. Accesservnt Ælfrici Abbatis grammatica latino-saxonica, cvm glossario suo ejusdem generis, 1659.

Formerly the property of George Davenport, whose name appears on the title page.

1659

1 volume 33 x 22 cm, front board detached.

Internal transfer from the library at Wellcome Collection department of Early Printed Books, March 1996. Purchased at Sotheby's in May 1919.

William Somner was educated at the free school in Canterbury, Kent. After graduating he became clerk to his father, who held the office of registrary of the court of Canterbury, under Sir Nathaniel Brent, commissary. He rapidly advanced to the position of registrar of the ecclesiastical courts of the diocese.

In 1657 he received the annual stipend of the Anglo-Saxon lecture, founded by Sir Henry Spelman, which enabled Somner to complete the Dictionarium, the first dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon language.

More information about William Somner can be found in his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

At Wellcome Collection:

A non-annotated copy of this work is held in the Rare Books collection.