
Aether .
In æthere hæc sequentia .
The . xii . Signes .
Duodecim Signa .
The . vii . Planets .
Septem planem .
Tymes .
Tempora .


Quatuor anni tempora cum appendicibus .
The . iiii . partes of the yeare .
Other times in the yere .
Alia tempora .

ALbeit right worshipfull , that this my treatise is bothe to vyle and base to bée set foorthe vnder your protection , beynge woorthely estéemed of all men , to be as well learned wyse and vertuouse , as any gen - tleman in this realme , notwithstandinge vpon hope of the humanitee and gentlenesse , which is euer in - cident to persons of sutche woorthie qualities , I am at this present bolde , hauing no acquaintance with y o[?] ur maistership , to dedicate this my rude collections vnto you , praying you to accepte it as a thinge written by me to induce children to the Latine to ( n ) gue , not moued thereto with the desire of vaine glory but with a feruente affection and loue I beare vnto my coun - trey . For accordynge to the sayinge of the deuine philosopher Plato . We are not borne onely for our owne commodi tée[?] , but partly our parentes , partly our fréendes , and partly our coun - trey , doth clayme a certaine dewtie of vs , whiche thinge made Codrus kynge of Athens , Curtius and Decius Romayne knightes , also Zopirus the noble persion , with diuers others to iopard their liues for the sauegard of their countreis , which examples of Infidels were sufficient to reproue me , if I should refuse to take a little peyne for the profyte of the publyke wealthe , and specially to preserue the tender youthe thereof from the infectioun of barbarousnesse , whiche therewith wil bée soone corrupte , not possible of longe tyme to be restored .
For as Horace doth witnesse , the potte will longe sa u[?] our of the lycour wherewith it is seasoned . Also the finest colours will soonest be staygned , neyther can they be so soone purified and made cleane agayne . These thynges considered , I haue resorted to the most famous and ancient auth o[?] urs , out of the
A . ij .whiche a2vTHE PROLOGVE .whiche as out of cleare fountaynes I haue drawen as dili - gentlye as I coulde , the propre names of thinges conteyned vnder one kynde , and disposed them in suche ordre , that a very childe b[?] eyng able to reade , may with little labour perfitely im - printe them in memory : Whiche shall not be onely profitable for them nowe in t[?] heir tendre age , but hereafter when they shalbe o f[?] more iudgement and yeres , it shalbe vnto them a sin - gular treasure : for the lacke whereof they shalbe compelled , as I haue herde many profounde clerkes bothe in disputacion as also in familiar communication to vse in stéede of the pro - per and naturall woor d[?] e ,[?] a paraphrase or circumlocucion .
Now if in the transl a[?] ting , or in the englishyng of these woor - des I haue erred , as I can not but so doo in so weightie a mat - tier , or if I haue omitted any thinge , as I haue done many purposely , because diuers greate learned men can not agrée v - pon them , I humbly submitte my selfe to your maystershippes correction , whome I knowe to bee excellentlye well learned bothe in the Gréeke and in the Latine , prayinge you here - after , whan occasion shall serue , to put your helpynge hande to the finisshynge of this little booke , whiche if you doo by the exaumple of syr Thomas Elyote that woorthy knyghte , you shall not onely binde all that be studious to praye for you , but also purchase to your selfe immortall fame and honour , whiche I pray God sende you , with longe life to his pleasure .
This is a facsimile and transcription of A shorte dictionarie for yonge beginners. : Gathered of good authours, specially of Columel, Grapald, and Plini. Withals, John. London: Henry Wykes, M.D.LXVIII. It is held by the Taylor Institution Library (shelf mark: ARCH.8o.E.1568).
The transcription was encoded in TEI P5 XML by Theresa Plomer.
A shorte dictionarie for yonge beginners , or “ A little dictionarie for children ” , as it is called in the running titles , was compiled by John Withals and is here represented in a print from 1568. While earlier prints ( e.g. 1556 , cf. EEBO ) exist , the do not differ dramatically from this edition , apart from typesetting and sometimes spelling . However , the dictionary was later revised and expanded , which might indicate a prolonged interest in the book . The given print includes a title page , introduction , table of contents , and the dictionary itself .
The English-Latin dictionary presents terms in Early Modern English with their Latin counterparts , often including related words and further comments both in Latin and English . Throughout the book , the typesetting consistently differentiates between the two languages by rendering English in gothic script . However , unlike a modern dictionary , the headwords are not sorted alphabetically . Instead , they are grouped thematically , or as the author describes it , “ in suche ordre , that a very childe beyng able to reade , may with little labour perfitely imprinte them in memory ” ( a2v ) . Therefore , the dictionary may not only be interesting linguistically in terms of early modern lexicography and translation correspondences between Early Modern English and Latin . The book's author also shows didactic intent to facilitate early language learning for children . It is for that second aspect that I decided to include the full table of contents – a part that might otherwise seem rather boring – in this excerpt , since it conveys the semantic fields the author deemed most important for young learners of Latin , and since it also reflects the semantic structure of the whole book . Thus , the “ little dictionarie ” can illustrate an early modern approach to language learning while at the same time being a refreshing way to brush up one's Latin nowadays .
Publication: Taylor Institution Library, one of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford, 2019. XML files are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . Images are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
.
Created by encoding transcription from printed text.
This is a diplomatic transcription encoded from printed text. Spelling and variation have been reproduced faithfully, unless there were clear typographical errors. Differentiation between 'y' and 'i' as well as 'u' and 'v' is included. However, the different allographs for 's' and 'r' ('ſ' and 'ꝛ') are not represented. Punctuation is used according to the original while complying with modern usage of whitespace. Abbreviations are expanded in (brackets). Apart from the introduction, linebreaks have not been encoded. Any other features such as the two-column layout, catchwords, page numbers, or running titles have been reproduced according to the original.
Dictionary entries are encoded as follows: English headwords in <orth>, with Latin translations and grammatical information in <def>. Additional comments and explanations can be found in <lbl>, while related Latin terms are encoded using <re>. Within <lbl> and <re>, differentiation between English and Latin is expressed through highlighted English terms (rendered as "gothic"). While the two languages are differentiated via typesetting throughout the text, this difference has only been encoded in the discussed environment to highlight the term-translation structure of the additional notes to the main dictionary entries.
Images are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .
All Images (ZIP - 48M)
All Images (PDF - 19M)
XML files are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .