Calvinus, Johannes, fl. 1598-1614.

Calvinus' Lexicon : (Roman/Canon Law, 1622)

Lexicon, 1622

Johannes Calvinus, alias Kahl. as he states on his title page, was a professor of Law at the University of Heidelberg. He intended, like many other compilers of dictionaries, to produce a work that was free from flaws, using the works of many authors including Brisson, Albericus, Cicero, and Tacitus. He included an extensive catalog of authors from whom he extracted his material (often lifting it wholesale from the text; a practice not looked down upon in his time, especially where lexicography was concerned). The preface is like many others: Calvinus was careful first to remark humbly about the masters whose dictionaries he used, to point out the vast shortcomings of his own work, and then to state that he hoped nevertheless that some would find it useful. For, he wrote, any work that increased the knowledge of the language and grammar of legal terms profits every man who read it. The definitions are short and concise, containing brief references: "Briss." or "Spieg." are common.

There are several pages of colorful odes to Calvinus at the front of the 1665 work, written by an esteemed Poet Laureate, among others, that indicate that the work was well received and commended by colleagues.

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