Chinese and English Dictionary; Containing all the words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, arranged according to the Radicals.

£9,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

This is overall the second Chinese-English dictionary, printed a couple of decades after Morrison’s ground-braking but somewhat unwieldy ‘Dictionary of the Chinese Language’ which was published between 1815-1823 in six large (and heavy) 4to volumes in Macao. Medhurst (1796-1857) was trained as a typesetter and printer in London. He joined the London Missionary Society and was sent to Malacca in 1816. His first publication in Batavia was an English-Japanese and Japanese-English Vocabulary which was printed in 1830. Medhurst wanted to publish a smaller and cheaper dictionary that would still include all 47,000 characters in the famous Kangxi dictionary of 1716, which itself remained the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary until the 20th century. “Some difficulties have been experienced in getting the present work through the press. The Chinese metallic types, cast at Malacca, are confessedly too large, and in every respect insufficient for such a work, there being only 1500 varieties, while 40,000 were needed. To cut the Chinese characters in wood or metal as required, would have demanded an outlay of more funds than the author could command, or ever expect to be remunerated for… A method has been adopted, which though not exhibiting a page of such beauty and perfection as could be wished, was yet found to answer the purpose of speed, cheapness, and legibility. This method consists in combining the two arts of typography and lithography together. The English words i

• Binding: Hardcover

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