The Works of George Dalgarno of Aberdeen

The Works Of George Dalgarno Of Aberdeen by George Dalgarno. This 1834 reprint from the Maitland Club collects Dalgarno’s principal works on language and education, including Ars Signorum, or Universal Character and Philosophical Language (1661), and Didascalocophus, or The Deaf and Dumb Man’s Tutor (1680), together with the accompanying Memoir and prefatory notices. The volume surveys Dalgarno’s attempt to devise a real character and a philosophical language to facilitate cross-language understanding, and to guide the education of deaf learners. It presents his Lexicon Grammatico-Philosophicum and Lexicon Latio-Philosop hicum, his Praxis on the classification of Predicaments, and his didactic methods for teaching reading and writing to the deaf, such as an alphabet of finger-notation and mnemonic devices. The text also records contemporary reactions, notes on Dalgarno’s career in Aberdeen and Oxford, and a biographical sketch of his life, work, and influence, including remarks on Wilkins, Leibniz, and the broader Enlightenment interest in universal language. As a historical artifact it illuminates early modern debates on language, logic, and pedagogy.