About This Collection
During his career he developed an interest in lexicography and became a collector of English dictionaries, glossaries, and related works in other languages. He donated most of his library collection to UBC in 1989. The collection consists of over 350 dictionaries and encyclopedias and spans the entire history of the English dictionary.
The collection contains dictionaries from throughout history. This includes precursors of dictionaries in the Classical period and the Renaissance, sixteenth century works, small seventeenth century English dictionaries, dictionaries by Bailey and Johnson from the eighteenth century, and dictionaries of the twentieth century, like the Oxford English Dictionary.
Image source: Cornet Studio. H. Rocke Robertson [P]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0136340
Featured Materials
- Dictionarium Rusticum & Urbanicum: Or, a Dictionary of All Sorts of Country Affairs byCall Number: PE25 .R62 V. 37Publication Date: 1704The title page of this anonymous dictionary of country words records that the book includes terms relating to everything from “The whole art of gardening” to “The Gentleman’s recreation; or the Arts of Hunting, Hawking, Fishing, Fowling, Ferreting, Cock-Fighting, etc”
- De priscorvm proprietate verborvm : prologvs feliciter incipit. byCall Number: PE25 .R62 V. 231Publication Date: 1490Entries: 23,000. Probably the sixth edition. Bound in the original wooden boards. The leather binding is contemporary
- An Alvearie or Triple Dictionarie in Englishe, Latin, and French byCall Number: PE25 .R62 V. 45Publication Date: [1573]Entries: 6,100. First edition.
Annotated with the names of the students who contributed to the work John Baret’s Alvearie is an excellent example of a polyglot dictionary commonly produced prior to English-English dictionaries. - Glossographia: or a Dictionary, Interpreting all Such Hard Words byCall Number: PE25 .R62 V. 51Publication Date: 1661It includes many jargon terms from shopkeepers and traders, words “in the mouths of common people” and terms related to cookery and country affairs.
- A Collection of English Words Not Generally Used byCall Number: PE25 .R62 V. 274Publication Date: 1674This work is considered the first published English dialect dictionary.
Colocating This Collection
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Indexes, Catalogues, and Bibliographies
Robertson, H. Rocke. A Collection of dictionaries and related works illustrating the development of the English dictionary. 1989
Settling the Language: Dictionaries and Language Change, 1490 to Today [PDF][1.0 MB] This exhibition catalogue from June 2015 gives detailed descriptions of a number of the items in the collection.
UBC Catalogue
Dr. H. Rocke Robertson Collection: This search will bring up all the material indexed under this collection name.