Blancardus' Lexicon medicum in Harris's Lexicon technicum : a lexicographic and lexicological study

The aim of this paper is both a lexicographic and lexicological analysis starting from the comparison of two important works published in London between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th. The Lexicon Medicum was first published in Latin in 1679 and was issued – and hence known – in England in 1684 with the title A Physical Dictionary, by Stephen Blancard (1650-1702). The Lexicon Technicum is the first English encyclopaedia, published in London in 1704. The idea of an analysis applied to the lexis of these works (and their multifarious micro-texts) comes from Harris himself: 1. from his “Preface” – where Blancardus/Blanchard is quoted as one of the main sources for the medical terminology included in the Lexicon Technicum – and 2. from his entries – where the name of Blanchard is often directly referred to as the authority for the information given. In conclusion, the analysis will demonstrate the strong/weak interrelation between this two works and, in particular, how and how much Blancardus’Lexicon has been exploited by Harris as a source and/or as a starting point for his own encyclopaedia, that is the compiler’s adaptations, transcriptions or abbreviations/reductions of the original text(s) in the economy of his own work.