Investigators of nature use iconic instruments to make visible their objects of study. This book is about a particular piece of equipment which supports the observation of texts--the dictionary. Christian Flow examines some of the most ambitious Latin dictionaries of the last five centuries, ending with the Thesaurus linguae Latinae--a monumental attempt, underway since the 1890s, to write the history of the Latin language from millions of example citations. In this telling, the Thesaurus' foundation is placed in and against a Renaissance tradition that took the lexicon as a tool made for (and by) "observation." It becomes a way of historicizing the enterprise of textual scholars--philologists--to reveal previously unseen features in the relicts of an ancient tongue. Physicians had their case studies; physiologists had their microscopes; astronomers their telescopes. Philologists had their lexica. Philological Observation offers an investigation of visual apprehension centered not on a
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