In order to make it […] easy’ : metalinguistic discourse in 18th-century British Medical Writing

During the 18th-century, the advances in medicine as well as a growing awareness of health issues favoured the circulation of an expanding medical vocabulary (cfr. Loudon 1992, Lane 2001, Harrison 2010) and the publication of multifarious medical texts (cfr. Fissel 2007: 110; cfr. also Lindemann 2010: 111-112). Reference works for experts at different levels (scholars, physicians, surgeons, practitioners, apothecaries, etc.) and non-experts (educated readers) began to circulate \u2018massively\u2019 (cfr. Lane 2001: 24 ff.). The authors aimed at \u201cdiffusing medical knowledge among the people\u201d (Buchan 1772: xxiii). This also meant that medical writers needed to develop disciplinary communicative strategies to deal with a complex and challenging matter (cfr. Banks 2008) \u201cto render the book[s] more generally useful [\u2026] as well as acceptable to the intelligent part of mankind\u201d (Buchan 1772: xi). This debate, more often than not carried on in the prefaces to reference works, is particularly intense in the second half of the 18th century

The Dissemination of Medical Practice in Late Modern Europe : The Case of Buchan’s Domestic Medicine

The aim of this study is the investigation of prefaces, introductory sections, tables of contents, indices, appendices and glossaries in the Italian and French translations of William Buchan\u2019s Domestic Medicine (1st ed., Edinburgh, 1769). The editions under scrutiny here are the 6th in English (1779, London), the 2nd in French (1780-, Paris) and the Italian edition issued in Milan (1785-). The analysis will focus on the methodology adopted in the process of translation and adaptation, as they emerge from paratextual sections; the same sections (particularly tables of contents, indices, appendices), along with extracts from the main body, will exemplify textual and discourse features in the three languages (similarities, correspondences, differences, additions, adaptations, omissions, etc.)

GRAMMAR, or the Consideration of LANGUAGE’” : metalinguistic assumptions in 18th-century British dictionaries of arts and sciences

Background. At the start of the Eighteenth century, a new emerging genre helped change the representation, the conceptualisation, and the vernacularisation of the world: this turning point was marked by the publication of universal dictionaries of arts and sciences, or encyclop\ue6dias, arranged in alphabetical order. These reference works were mainly addressed to a lay, non-expert audience of educated readers, and promoted the dissemination of traditional \u2018knowledges\u2019 and new ideas in eighteenth-century British society and across Europe (Yeo 1991, 1996, 2001, 2003; Kafker 1981 and 1994a-b). The alphabetical order made topics easily retrievable, and a complex system of cross-references established connections between terms and disciplines. Language and metalinguistic issues \u2013 terminology and ideas \u2013 represent one of the major fields of interest, due to the contemporary debate on variation and variants vs. regularisation and standardisation. Aims and method. The general aim of this paper is a survey of the most relevant headwords/entries concerning language and metalinguistic awareness. The starting point are general notions as defined and discussed within individual entries, e.g. s.v. language, grammar, English, dialect, idiom, word, syllable, letter, vowel, consonant, pronunciation, writing, orthography, etc. across encyclop\ue6dias. A further step would emphasise the network of ideas established by cross-references, to make a more comprehensive discourse on (meta)language emerge, and to verify traditional approaches vs. innovations throughout the century. Sources (British dictionaries of arts and sciences published between 1704 and 1788). The following works are the most relevant over the century, and the main focus of the study: Harris\u2019s Lexicon Technicum (1704, 1-folio vol., hereafter LT), Chambers\u2019s Cyclop\ue6dia (1728 [1727], 2 in-folio voll., hereafter Cy), Encyclop\ue6dia Britannica (1768-1771, 3 in-quarto voll., hereafter EB), and Rees\u2019s Cyclop\ue6dia (1778-1788, 5 in-folio voll., hereafter ReCy). The reference is usually to the first edition of the preceding works, where different, it will be marked by a left superscript number (e.g. 5thCy, 5thLT). Discussion. The discussion will include extracts drawn from paratextual and prefatory matter, this section mainly concerns the general principles. More detailed examples will be drawn from the main body, that is to say the entries (see above). This will highlight both specific contents and (meta)language issues, and intra-textual connections to further headword/entries, in order to systematise an apparently fragmented discourse on (the English) language

Ffor god wolde þat alle men ferde weel & were sauid : a Late Middle English Pater Noster Tract

The anonymous tract whose critical edition will be here presented is a late Middle English work; it differs from the most common Pater Noster expositions of the period. Since, as R. Raymo argues, A more ambitious commentary on the Pater Noster than the standard exposition\u2026survives in two early fifteenth-century manuscripts . This quotation does not only highlight the originality of the tract, but it gives useful information for its dating. It is noteworthy that since the beginning of the XVth century prose became the preferred form of expression when writing works of religiuos instruction and the habit of addressing directly to the individual was spreading as well. The tract, as aforesaid, has come to us in two manuscripts: the former is Ms.158.926.4g.5, 58v-88r, in Norwich Castle Museum (ff. NCM), the latter is the Harleian Ms. 1197, 28v-48v, (ff. H) in the British Library Collections. The work deals wih the explanation of the seven petitions of the Lord's prayer connecting them in turn with the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, the beatitudes and the two precepts of love; in both manuscripts it is integrated among writings of religious character included in Jolliffe's Check-list. What is really relevant is the fact that the Pater Noster tract, in NCM and H as well, is immediately preceded by Lavynham's treatise , a brief discussion dealing with the seven deadly sins by the carmelite friar Richard Lavynham. This order is interesting because it may well suggest a common source for the two manuscripts. The text that has been chosen for the present critical edition is the one taken from H. It is not greatly different, neither for the contents nor for the language, from the variant text kept in NCM but for a passage at least situated by the middle of the tract

"God bad us for to wexe and multiplye" : voci iperboliche nei Canterbury Tales

In the literary context of the late fourteenth-century London, a group of pilgrims sets off to the shrine of St Thomas \ue0 Beckett, in Canterbury. The journey gives each of them the possibility to interact with their fellow travellers and to express their individual feelings and thoughts, their interiority and imaginative world as well as their wordly experience, with its contradictory values, its tensions between feudalism and urban culture, its complex social relationships. This pilgrimage becomes the perfect setting for the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner, two of the most complex and verbally aggressive characters of the Canterbury Tales

Plants from abroad : botanical terminology in 18th-century British encyclopaedias

During the 18th century British encyclopaedias included in their lemmata an increasing number of botanical lexis, that is the terminology pertaining to \u201cthat branch of natural history which treats of the uses, characters, classes, orders, genera, and species of plants. [\u2026] and what useful and ornamental purposes may be expected from the cultivation of it [i.e. botany]\u201d (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1768-1771, s.v. BOTANY). More often than not, these terms represented migrating plants coming from exotic places, new geographical areas, whether eastwards or westwards. The general aim of this survey is to investigate the representation of the botanical science in 18th-century universal and specialized encyclopaedias, starting from prefaces and going on with the micro-texts of the single entries s.v. BOTANY. The starting point is thus theoretical botany. A further point in the analysis focuses on applied botany and discusses those plants such as Camellia Sinensis, Coffea Arabica, Theobroma Cacao, Saccharum Officinarum and Cinchona Officinalis which were mostly exploited for commercial and/or medical reasons. The individual entries include the most tiny details on the single headwords-topics and also display an acceptable plurality of beliefs, viewpoints and perspectives, focussing on botanical descriptions, historical information, socio-cultural issues, legal, political and commercial considerations

Internet resources for Middle English and Chaucer's language

This work aims at giving practical information on some sites dealing with Middle English language and, in particular, Chaucer\u2019s language. It is almost impossible to describe exhaustively what has been found on the subject because the web pages dedicated to it and consulted are manifold and the different links they propose are even more numerous. However, this can be a useful starting point for further research on the web. Here, only the most interesting pages \u2013 or considered as such for the purpose \u2013 are listed and described with examples taken from them. The survey is divided into five sections concerning 1. General Introduction to Middle English and Chaucer\u2019s Language; 2. Audio Files; 3. Glossarial Databases; 4. Conclusions; 5. Appendix. It is to be pointed out that the attention is mainly focused on Chaucer as one of the most important representatives of Middle English language and literature. Even though the internet site addresses are given along with their description and evaluation, a final appendix has been added as an easier reference

Crime, Punishment, and Law in eighteenth-century British encyclopedias

In the second half of 18th-century Europe, the notions \u2013 and the administration \u2013 of law and justice underwent dramatic and fundamental epistemological changes. Crime and punishment were gradually reconceptualised and redefined. The general aim of the present study is to provide an overview of selected contents included in 18th-century British dictionaries of arts and sciences: a survey on the words connected to crime and punishment, and the function of reference works in the dissemination of traditional vs. innovative contents. The detailed aim is at least twofold: to analyse the notions and terms of crime, punishment, corporal punishment as judicial torture, and their relationship with law and justice, and to verify the inclusion of Beccaria\u2019s work and his ideas in encyclopedic entries after 1767

The language of medicine in the "Philosophical Transactions" : Observations on style

Medicine is one of the most fully represented disciplines in the Philosophical Transactions (PT), particularly in the materials dating from before the establishment of medical societies and of specialized journals. Medical events were recorded and described, data were collected, interpreted, and discussed. The need for a faster communication among professionals brought about new written forms. Shorter texts were adopted to exchange up\u2011to\u2011date information. This investigation focuses on a selected number of texts to verify the origin and the nature of any rhetorical and stylistic changes which may have occurred in the PT during the eighteenth century. The selection of extracts constitutes the basis for a detailed discussion of rhetorical and stylistic issues. Between 1702 and 1801 medical writing in the PT undergoes major changes: these are gradual shifts along a continuum highlighting an essentially author-centered approach at the outset of the century and an object-centered perspective at the end of the period

Scienza medica e tradizione enciclopedica nell'Inghilterra del Settecento : testi a confronto

Obiettivo di questo articolo \ue8 la descrizione del modo in cui la scienza medica viene presentata nelle tre enciclopedie settecentesche inglesi: il Lexicon Technicum (1704) di John Harris, la Cyclopaedia (1728) di Ephraim Chambers e l\u2019Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768-1771). Lo studio vuole chiarire il ruolo svolto da ogni singola opera nella diffusione dei principi di tale scienza. A questo proposito, per ognuna delle enciclopedie sono state selezionate e analizzate voci quali MEDICINE, PHARMACY, CHIRURGERY / CHYRURGERY / SURGERY, irrinunciabili punti di partenza per l\u2019introduzione della \u2018materia medica\u2019 nel suo complesso. Successivamente, sono state individuate e confrontate alcune voci ritenute interessanti per esemplificare le scelte e le realizzazioni dei compi\uaclatori, sia a livello di contenuti, sia di struttura. Tali voci sono state catalogate alfabeticamente in una tabella sinottica che possa agevolare la comprensione e il confronto al fine evidenziarne le principali caratteristiche, cos\uec come gli elementi di continuit\ue0 e novit\ue0, di evoluzione formale e contenutistica, di dipendenza oppure di originalit\ue0, di eventuale contrasto