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Gabriele Stein, John Pa/sgrave as Renaissance Linguist, Oxford Studies in Lexicography and Lexicology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). 511 pp. ISBN -x9--823505-4. k.
Although any authoritative assessment of this immensely rich book must come from Renaissance specialists, it cannot be ignored by anyone concerned with the development of French and English in the medieval period. Gabriele Stein not only sets out comprehensively the linguistic context which produced Palsgrave and which he in turn helped to mould, but she realizes that his work can only be properly understood against the background of the development of French and English in earlier centuries. Her lengthy account of this controversial subject is both well researched and perceptive, so that her readers can appreciate fully the remarkable degree of innovation that Palsgrave brought to all aspects of...