DINNEEN, Rev. Patrick S. Focloir Gaedhilge agus Bearla. An Irish-English Dictionary, Being a thesaurus of the words, phrases and idioms of the modern Irish language (First edition of Dinneen’s great work)

Dublin: Gill, and London: Nutt, Irish Text Society, 1904. Crown octavo. First edition. pp. xvi, 803 (double column), 4 (publisher’s list). Publisher’s gilt decorated cloth. Signature of previous owner on endpaper and library stamps on titlepage. Spine professionally rebacked. Some light wear to extremities. A very good copy of the extremely rare first edition.
First edition of Dinneen’s great work, by far the most important published by the I.T.S. A preface by Douglas Hyde (President), Daniel Mescal and Eleanor Hull notes that the project was initially entrusted to Father O’Leary and David Comyn, and later John [Eoin] MacNeill, all of whom were unable to bring it to completion, before the help of Fr. Dinneen was eventually secured. Dineen’s own preface says nothing but the urgent necessity for a convenient lexicon, could have induced him to abandon more congenial studies and devote his energies to the work. He says the Irish Dictionary contains a larger number of words used in the living Irish language, and in the more modern written compositions, than any Irish Dictionary yet published. The initial printing was probably at least 1,000, but it was ten years before a revised edition was published, and in spite of its robust construction, most copies of the first edition were read to death.

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