Luisa Lacal, la primera lexicógrafa española, y su Diccionario de la música, técnico, histórico, bio-biográfico (Madrid, 1899)

The Diccionario de música, técnico, histórico, bio-bibliográfico was published in Madrid, in 1899. It is the first dictionary of musical terminology written by a Spanish woman, the musicologist and pianist María Luisa Lacal de Bracho (1874-1962). Luisa Lacal's contribution to the history of music and specialized lexicography has not been studied to date, although it is an important link in the scarce tradition of dictionaries of musical terminology in Spanish begun in the mid-nineteenth century (Fargas and Soler 1852, Melcior 1859, Parada y Barreto 1868 and, especially, his predecessor Pedrell 1894, more technical) and the subsequent development of other specialized lexicographic products already in the twentieth century. Our interest is focused on offering information about the methodology and contents of this 600-page dictionary that includes not only musical technicalities but also encyclopedic information, historical digressions and very abundant and up-to-date news about institutions, works and authors both Spanish and foreign of all times, but especially contemporary. A second aim of this paper is to offer biographical data of Luisa Lacal and the production context of her dictionary; that is, to show the task of someone who can be considered the first known Spanish woman lexicographer, a pioneer in the field of specialized lexicography in Spanish.