Kraków, Polonia
This paper presents the Waaren-Lexicon in zwölf Sprachen der Hamburgischen Commerz-Deputation zugeeignet (‘Vocabulary of Merchandise in twelve languages dedicated to the Chamber of Commerce of Hamburg’) as well as the figure of its author Philipp Andreas Nemnich (1764–1822), German encyclopaedist and journalist. It is a little-known multilingual lexicographic work, published in 1797 in Hamburg, which furnishes a collection of names of various kinds of merchandise such as food, plants, animals, tissues, minerals, precious stones, etc., and is designed for the practical use of tradesmen from different countries. The main purpose of the paper is to point out the characteristics of the Portuguese material included in the dictionary. It also provides evidence of the Waaren-Lexicon’s importance in supplying general knowledge about the European material culture at the end of the 18th century.