John Minsheu

John Minsheu's most significant publication is 'A Guide into Tongues,' a multilingual dictionary first published in 1617. The work provided English equivalents alongside Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and several other languages, making it one of the most ambitious lexical works of early modern England.

'A Guide into Tongues' included eleven languages: English, Welsh, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Hebrew, Greek, and an expanded edition added further linguistic material. This multilingual scope made it unprecedented among English lexicographic works of its era.

Minsheu was among the earliest, but not the very first—Robert Cawdrey's 'Table Alphabeticall' of 1604 is generally cited as the first monolingual English dictionary. Minsheu distinguished himself by taking a multilingual approach rather than simply defining English words in English.

Minsheu raised funds for the expanded 1625 edition of 'A Guide into Tongues' through an early subscription system, enlisting financial backers from the academic and merchant communities. This pre-publication funding model was relatively unusual for the period and demonstrates the scale of ambition behind the project.