The book gives a chronological account of the bilingual and polyglot English glossaries, vocabularies, and dictionaries before 1604, the date of publication of the first monolingual English dictionary. It tries to retrace the origin and historical development of the lexicographical principles and methods that underlay early English dictionaries. This is done by comparing the compilers' prefaces to their works, their theoretical and methodological bases, with a metalexicographical in-depth study of the works themselves which reveal their lexicographical practice. Special emphasis is given to the following aspects: explicit discussions of lexicographical issues, the source books consulted, the envisaged dictionary users, and the beginnings of modern English lexicographical practice (distinction between headword and run-on entry; inclusion of pronunciation, grammar, usage labels, affixes, idioms, illustrative examples, and pictoral illustrations; ‘definition’ styles). It is shown that compilers of English-Latin dictionaries and compilers who contrasted English with one of the vernaculars of the time, French, Welsh, Spanish or Italian, were more innovative and original than compilers of Latin-English dictionaries.