La idea de un diccionario universal "egecutada" en la jurisprudencia civil de Mayans: Léxico y fuentes.

by González García, Mª Virginia

SUMMARY This study analyses the work called Idea de un diccionario universal egecutada en la jurisprudencia civil (Idea for a universal dictionary developed in civil jurisprudence), a terminological dictionary griten by Gregorio Mayans and published in 1768. This work is a clear example of the multifaceted dimensions around which the linguistic and reformist thought of this Valencian writer from the Enlightenment is built up. Gregorio Mayans thought it was necessary, within the Hispanic domain, to elaborate an encyclopaedia or integrating and comprehensive dictionary collecting and classifying the full range of the most varied scientific disciplines. The elaboration of the work conceived by Mayans should be carried out by Antonio Bordazar de Artazu, a Valencian printer who shared several projects and concerns with the author. Nevertheless, apparently Bordazar did not manage to understand the method suggested by Don Gregorio in order to carry out his task, so the Enlightened writer from Oliva decided to write a model so as to guide his disciple, that is the so-called Idea de un diccionario universal egecutada en la jurisprudencia civil. Our analysis of the Idea, on the one hand, is based on approaches of a philological nature, closely related to the field of Linguistic Historiography. The first one of them aims to explain a series of issues regarding the gestation and publication of the work, particularly its possible connection with projects of a universal language. The second approach, also based on Linguistic Historiography, intends to point out and discuss what were Gregorio Mayans? lexicographic ideas, in order to explain possible peculiarities of his work. On the other hand, other criteria which are rather lexicographic in nature have also been taken into account when writing the analysis of this work. Finally, another objective of this study has also been to carry out an analysis of the sources of this dictionary.