mannerup posted:

dug up the research on the question lmao, the answer is England's John Minsheu in the 17th century for an 11 language dictionary



basically had a Pateron-esque list of people who subscribed to his dictionary that he printed in each edition, which got your name printed on the list of the next volume that came out



subscriptions also saved it from being some dead project because no individual person wanted to pay for the publication as was the customary practice



here are pictures of the list itself



also as a side note, the next guy who did the subscription model to sell poetry loved the money making aspect and bitching about people who didn't pay in the next volume