現存『英和対訳袖珍辞書』初版15本の調査研究

要旨

It is said that only 200 copies of '英和対訳袖珍辞書' were printed in 1862, when our country was under the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate.It is almost a whole 135 years since the so-called rare book '英和対訳袖珍辞書' was published in the Edo Era. Research revealed that out of 200 copies printed, only 15 copies are still in existence, not only in Japan, but in the U. K. and the U.S.A. It is only natural to prezume that those who formerly possessed the books were eminent in their fields.The fifteen copies are filled with various markings, including ownership stamps, signatures, inscriptions and many notes written in the margins.It was as if the writers had been getting a glimpse of a hidden side of cultural history of modern Japanese society through one book.Although it is widely accepted that the dictionary was published in 1862, the writers bring forward a proposition that the dictionary was actually published in January or February of 1863. The discrepancy can be explained by the differences between the Christian calendar and the lunar calendar.This treatise is based on a paper by the two writers, read at the regular monthly meeting in May, 1997.

主題