Cocker

1715 · réf. 64588 — London: printed for T. Norris at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge C. Brown at the Crown in Newgate-Street and A. Bettesworth at the Red Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row 1715. 12mo pp. 288; lexicon in triple column; prelims and terminals a bit soiled and spotted top corner of title page torn affecting the ruled border; all else good and sound in recent brown morocco-backed brown cloth boards gilt-lettered direct on spine endpapers renewed. Early ownership signature of "Richd. Harding" at the top of B1. First published in 1704 only three editions of this dictionary were ever produced. "The authorship of this work is suspect since Cocker died in 1676 and Hawkins in 1692 but Hawkins was also responsible for publishing Cocker's Arithmetic 1678 and his Decimal Arithmetic 1685. H.B. Wheatley "Who Was Cocker" The Bibliography VI 1884 25-30 regarded the Dictionary as a bookseller's fraud. Heal has suggested that the work may be the product of Edward Cocker junior. Cocker's dictionary has sections devoted to proper names based like other similar lists on Charles Estienne's Dictionarium historicum Paris 1553 "An explanation of terms used in the art of war" based on Guillet de Saint George's Les Arts de l'homme d'epee which was translated into English in 1705 as The Gentleman's Dictionary and "An alphabetical explanation of the most difficult terms used in trade and merchandize" based on Edward Hatton's The Merchants magazine 1697" Alston. Alston V 87; Kennedy 6205; Vancil p. 53. printed for T. Norris at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, C. Brown at the Crown in Newgate-Street, and A. Bettesworth at the unknown