Linde's dictionary A landmark in Polish lexicography

Samuel Linde (1771-1847), author of the first major monolingual dictionary of Polish, was a native speaker of German. This, together with the complex political situation in which his work originated and proceeded - in Leipzig , Warsaw and Vienna - led to many doubts not only as to the author's lingui stic competence, but also regarding his national allegiance and political s ympathies, an aspect not unimportant in an era when Poland did not exist as an independent political entity. Despite all this, the finished 4-volume w ork (Warsaw, 1807-1814), whose compilation, production, content and structu re are discussed in this paper, has proved to be of lasting importance for Slavic lexicography.