P.J.C. [i.e. Povel Jensen Colding].
FIRST DANISH-LATIN DICTIONARY, BY TYCHO BRAHE’S ASSISTANT
Dictionarium Herlovianum, desumptum ex etymologico Latino.
Copenhagen, Impensis Salomonis Sartorii, 1626£2,450.00
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 367 unnumbered ll. Roman and Gothic letter. Typographical initial. T-p dusty, two small areas deliberately abraded, one with small contemp. repair. Second l. with two small marginal tears, one touching text without loss, first few ll. with waterstain to blank outer margin, Q4, T4, Bb5, Dd3 with marginal paper flaws to blank lower corners, Dd8 with small ink burn touching catchword to recto, quires Vv-Yy with light waterstain to lower margin just touching text, Yy1 with paper flaw to outer margin affecting one or two letters. Light age-toning due to low quality paper, a very good copy in original panelled calf, spine gilt, rubbed, slight loss at head and tail of spine, corner and joints, edges stained red. Contemp. autograph to t-p, erased, a few contemp. marginalia and annotations including price note to fly, ‘3s ivd’, ‘Dictionarium Danicum’ to fly, additional Danish word to Ee4v, and addition to ‘Finis’: ‘Fiat in nostra insula salus.’ Macclesfield Library bookplate to front pastedown, blindstamp to t-p and next few ll.
Very rare first and only edition of the first published Danish-Latin dictionary, by Tycho Brahe’s (1546-1601) young assistant, who was briefly with Brahe in the last year of his life.
The preface is dedicated to the Bishop of Zealand Hans Poulson Resen, who had placed his library collections at Colding’s disposal. It refers to Colding’s earlier work, Etymologicum Latinum, a folio work published at Rostock in 1622, begun before his appointment. The dictionary, like the Etymologicum, is significant for the wealth of Danish words that it collected. The preface argues for the virtues of the Danish language, which Colding worries has been corrupted by invasive foreign influence. Latin is posited as the language best suited do express Danish because of its applicability to both domestic words and to the technical and mechanical arts. One interesting entry, for example, is for Bisspe paa Skackspil, i.e. bishops in chess, for which Colding gives the Latin definition saggitarius, i.e. archer.
According to Danish sources, in 1601 Colding (1581-1640) travelled to Prague, serving Brahe from June until his final illness in October. Brahe was at the time working on the Rudolphine Tables, but not all of Brahe’s servants helped with his astronomical work, and there is no evidence that Colding was proficient in such matters. Colding then travelled in Europe, visiting Rome and Germany, before returning home in 1604. Fulfilling various ecclesiastical and administrative offices, in 1622 he was chosen as headmaster of Herlufsholm, a gymnasium in Naestved founded in 1565 by Herluf Trolle and his wife Birgitte Gøye, the declining fortunes of which he dramatically improved. It was here that Colding wrote his Danish-Latin dictionary (for which it is also named), designed primarily for the use of his students. He resigned his post in 1638.
OCLC notes a single copy in the US, at the Newberry; another is at the Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen, both matching ours. Not in Vater/Jülg, Brunet or Graesse. Daniel Kilham Dodge, ‘Bibliography of Danish and Swedish Dictionaries’ in Publications of the Modern Languages Association of America, 5.4 (1890), p. 295. Check Nielsen Dansk bibliografi [London Lib].In stock
