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Timeline

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Timeline

1400
January 1

Geoffrey Chaucer, the earliest author cited in SJ’s Dictionary, dies

A painting of Geoffrey Chaucer

1460
June 16

Joannes Balbus’s Catholicon is the first dictionary to be printed with movable type

Post band image

1538
June 16

The Dictionary of Syr Thomas Eliot Knyght, a Latin–English work, is the first English printed book with dictionary in its title

1564
April 16

William Shakespeare, the most quoted author in the Dictionary, is born in Stratford-upon-Avon

portrait of william shakespeare

1565
June 16

Thomas Cooper publishes Thesaurus linguae Romanæ & Britannicæ, an important Latin–English dictionary

portrait of thomas cooper

1566
June 16

John Withals publishes A Shorte Dictionarie for Yonge Beginners Gathered of Good Authours, a Latin–English dictionary for children

John Withals publishes A Shorte Dictionarie for Yonge Beginners Gathered of Good Authours, a Latin–English dictionary for children

1572
June 16

Henri Estienne publishes his Thesaurus linguae graecae, a major Greek–Latin lexicon

1580
June 16

Sir Philip Sidney begins his first major work, Astrophel and Stella; in the Dictionary SJ writes, “I have fixed Sidney’s work for the [early] boundary, beyond which I make few excursions”

Sir Philip Sidney begins his first major work, Astrophel and Stella; in the Dictionary SJ writes, “I have fixed Sidney’s work for the [early] boundary, beyond which I make few excursions”

1604
June 16

Robert Cawdrey publishes A Table Alphabeticall, the first monolingual English dictionary

1611
June 16

El Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, the first general monolingual Spanish dictionary, is published

June 16

The King James Version of the Bible is published; it is the most quoted work in the Dictionary

1612
June 16

The Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, the first great European dictionary produced by a national academy, is published in Florence

1616
April 23

William Shakespeare dies

June 16

William Bullokar publishes An English Expositor: Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Used in Our Language, with Sundry Explications, Descriptions and Discourses, the second monolingual English dictionary

1623
June 16

Henry Cockeram publishes The English Dictionarie; or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words, an example of the tradition of “hard-word” dictionaries

June 16

William Shakespeare’s colleagues publish Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, known as the “First Folio”

picture of two pages of the first folio

1656
June 16

Thomas Blount publishes Glossographia; or, A Dictionary Interpreting the Hard Words of Whatsoever Language, Now Used in Our Refined English Tongue

1658
June 16

Edward Phillips publishes The New World of Words; or, A General Dictionary, the first English dictionary published in the large folio format; around half its entries are plagiarized from Blount’s Glossographia

1660
May 16

Charles II is restored to the throne after eleven years in which England had no king; Johnson focuses most of his attention on the language of “the writers before the restoration”

portrait of king charles II

1667
June 16

John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, one of the most cited works in the Dictionary

John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, one of the most cited works in the Dictionary

1694
June 16

The first edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise is published in four volumes in Paris

1700
June 16

John Dryden, one of the most quoted authors in the Dictionary, dies

John Dryden, one of the most quoted authors in the Dictionary, dies

1702
June 16

John Kersey publishes A New English Dictionary; or, A Complete Collection of the Most Proper and Significant Words, Commonly Used in the Language

1709
September 18

Samuel Johnson is born in Lichfield

Samuel Johnson is born in Lichfield

1712
May 16

Alexander Pope publishes the first version of The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope publishes the first version of The Rape of the Lock

1719
June 16

Daniel Defoe publishes the first part of Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe publishes the first part of Robinson Crusoe

1721
June 16

Nathan Bailey publishes An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, the most popular dictionary of the eighteenth century

1723
June 16

Thomas Dyche publishes a small Dictionary of All the Words Commonly Us’d in the English Tongue

Post band image

1726
June 16

Work begins on the Diccionario de la lengua española

October 28

Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver’s Travels

1728
October 31

Samuel Johnson matriculates at Pembroke College, Oxford

1729
January 29

John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera opens at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre

December 12

Samuel Johnson, unable to pay the fees, is forced to leave Oxford without a degree

1730
June 16

Nathan Bailey publishes the first edition of the Dictionarium Britannicum

1732
March 16

SJ serves as a teacher at Market Bosworth Grammar School, earning £20 a year; he leaves after a few months

1735
June 9

SJ marries Elizabeth “Tetty” Porter, and uses her money to open a boarding school at Edial

SJ marries Elizabeth “Tetty” Porter, and uses her money to open a boarding school at Edial

June 16

SJ’s first book, a translation of Jerónimo Lobo’s travel book about Abyssinia, is published

June 16

Thomas Dyche’s New General English Dictionary: Particularly Calculated for the Use and Improvement of Such as Are Unacquainted with the Learned Languages is published

1736
June 22

Nathan Bailey publishes the second edition of the Dictionarium Britannicum, SJ’s most important predecessor

1737
January 22

SJ’s Edial School is forced to close