William Burney
Price: £50.00
The best - known - and most comprehensive - of the eighteenth - century marine encyclopaedias.
William Falconer first published his Marine Dictionary in 1769, and obviously filled a need for it to be reprinted, though not significantly revised, on numerous occasions in the last decades of the eighteenth century. Its alphabetical format provided not just succinct definitions of maritime terminology but detailed, and sometimes tabular data on many technical aspects of shipbuilding, fitting and armament, not to mention the Navy's administrative and operational practices.
Historians and modern enthusiasts of the age of sail have always been aware of the reference value of the work and by far the most desirable edition is the fourth, of 1815, revised and greatly expanded by the naval historian and antiquarian William Burney. Over 700 pages of text and drawings. HB.