Vocabulum; or The Rogue's Lexicon
New York: George W. Matsell, 1890.
Later Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Very Good Condition. Item #045932
Original red cloth, light wear and surface marks, paper spine label a bit chipped. Slight browning to pages, a few clumsily opened, put otherwise unmarked. Three plates and a frontis portrait; 130pp and 3 pages of ads - the final ad page and the rear endpaper both with long tears without loss. A facsimile reprint dated 1859 but ca. 1890 with illustrations added. The first edition lacks illustrations.
Matsell was New York City police chief and the initial aim of The Rogue's Lexicon was for his detectives, but he was not unaware of the works value to linguists. This was for quite some time the first such dictionary published in the U.S. and records hundreds of words for the first time. It was used by Scorsese to inform the patter of the characters in Gangs of New York Size: Octavo (8vo). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Language & Linguistics; Inventory No: 045932.
Price: $200.00