Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

English in your pocket 

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[MANUCRIPT ENGLISH REFERENCE]. GRAMMATICA INGLESE posta in prospetta e reso portabile per maggior commodo delle studenti di questa Lingua. Composta e raccolta da N.N.

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DIZZIONARIO DOMESTICO che esprimono le cose le piu communi. Le parole Italiane ed Inglese & Verbi Inglesi ed Italiani. 1811. £3,850

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Manuscript composed of 60 small paper panels (each around 55x75 mm), mounted on both sides of a backing of green silk (390 x 620 mm unfolded) made of of several bands, with two silk hanging loops in corners; some browning and staining, especially to the title panels (which are exposed when the item is folded); some wear, especially to folds, but still a very attractive object. 

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A glorious and unusual anglo-italian dictionary-cum-grammar, most likely compiled by a tutor (here identified only as ‘N.N.’) as a pocket guide for a student beginning to learn English.

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The guide consists of sixty small panels on a green silk back, which can be folded up to pocket size and then hung as a panel from two tabs in the corners. On one side, we find the Dizzionario domestico, which (with a few exceptions) presents one panel per letter, divided into four columns, largely with Italian nouns and adjectives and their English equivalents, and then English verbs and their Italian equivalents. The row at the top of the sheet presents an array of English Christian names (nomi di battismo). 

The other side is devoted to English grammar. This opens with a guide to the letters used in English, their pronunciation, and the ways in which they combine (both in combinations of consonants and in diphthongs, where more than one panel, on the combination -ea, demonstrates why a sensible person would never attempt to learn English: Creator, dead, dearth, heart, idea, and so on). The lucky student also finds tables of irregular verbs, the conjugations of to be, to have, and to love, the use of personal pronouns, and definite and indefinite articles. 

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The compiler’s identity is unclear. Only identified as ‘N.N.’, it would be tempting to speculate, based on the indecision clear in the title card to the grammar section between ‘portatile’ and ‘portabile’ that it was the work of a native English speaker, rather than an Italian, but given the Italian appearance of the handwriting, that may be a speculation too far. 

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[ref: 2455 ]