Methoden und Ziele der lexikographischen Erschließung von Fachtexten der Frühen Neuzeit

The lexicographical analysis of G. B. Della Porta's "Magia Naturalis" is of great interest to language scholars: it collects an abundance of lexical material from the 16th 17th century, providing a source for special language-research, and fosters concepts of "Europeanisation" of historical linguistics. The specialized lexicon of the original Latin text (1558) has been compared with its Italian (l560) and German translation (1612): this article deals with the phases of lexicographical work that resulted in a specialized, semasiological and trilingual dictionary, where Latin plays the role of a tertium comparationis. The article then discusses, in detail, methods and problems relating to the use of computer, data collection and presentation, i.e. macro and microstructural problems.