IV. Type and fleurons

Dictionarium tetraglotton... – Anvers: Christophe Plantin, 1562. In-4.

The editor of a dictionary must facilitate the reader’s circulation through the work and help him differentiate information within each article. Here, each of the 20,000 entries offers the Latin word followed by Greek, French and Dutch equivalents and indications of gender, declension, conjugation and usage. Its compiler was probably Cornelis Kiliaan, compositor and then corrector for Plantin, inspired by the Parisian lexicographical model of Robert Estienne and based on dictionaries published in Antwerp over the last twenty years.

   In this volume of standard columnar format, the page layout makes it easy to find the beginning of each letter by a large majuscule equal to four lines of text; the flow of reading is helped by a pair of capital initials placed in the running title above each column. The entry is differentiated by hanging indentation. Translations always appear in the same order with a standard typographic distinction: roman for Latin, then Greek, italics for French and gothic for Dutch-Flemish.

Cultura Fonds: CS 143