6. BIOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS 



The older encyclopaedias did not always include biographies, because a distinc- 

 tion was made between encyclopaedias deahng with scientific topics of various kinds 

 on the one hand and historical dictionaries (like Moreri's and Bayle's) on the 

 other. The first edition of the Britannica ( 1768-71 ) did not include biographies, but 

 the second (1778-83) and all the following did. At present, every alphabetical en- 

 cyclopaedia includes biographies, but on account of the competition for space of 

 many other items, those biographies are brief and relatively few in number. 



There is thus a need in addition to the encyclopaedias for biographical collections. 



First aid is obtainable in such books as Gottardo Garollo (1850-1917): Di- 

 zionario biografico universale (2 vols., 2126 p., Milano, Hoepli 1907); the Universal 

 pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology by Joseph Thomas (1811-91). 

 New 4th ed. revised (2550 p., London and Philadelphia 1915), the first edition had 

 appeared in 1870; Webster's Biographical dictionary ( 1733 p., Springfield, Mass., 

 1943). 



Of the earlier biographical collections only one must be quoted here, the one 

 begun by Christian Gottlieb Jocher (1694-1758), born in Leipzig, professor in 

 the university of that city and director of its library, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon 

 (11 vols., Leipzig 1750-1819, 1897). The first four volumes, covering the whole 

 alphabet, are Jocher's work (1750-51), the following six volumes (1784-1819) are 

 supplements provided by Johann Christoph Adelung (1732-1806) to the letter J, 

 and for the rest by Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund (1761-1848). A final supple- 

 ment edited by Otto Gtjnther appeared much later (1897). These volumes are 

 still worth consulting, especially for personalities of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries. 



Two very large biographical collections appeared last century, both in France. 

 Joseph Michaud (1767-1839) and Louis Gabriel Michaud (1773-1858): Biogra- 

 phic universelle (85 vols., Paris 1811-62). Italian translation with additions, Bi- 

 ografia universale (65 vols., Venezia 1822-31). 



The second and better is the one begun forty years later by Ferdinand Hoefer 

 (1811-78):*^ Nouvelle biographie generale (46 vols., Paris 1855-66). 



The historical standards of the national collections are generally higher than those 

 of the universal collections, because their scope is less ambitious, they are more homo- 

 geneous, the collaborators use to some extent the same sources and to a large extent 

 the same methods. The best known of those national biographies are: 



Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (55 vols., Leipzig 1871-1910). Abbreviated 

 ADB. Vol. 56 published in 1912 is a general index, very convenient. This bibli- 

 ography is periodically continued by the Biographisches Jahrbuch und deutscher 

 Nekrolog (18 vols, for 1896 to 1913, pubhshed in Berlin 1897-1917) and then by 

 the Deutsches biographisches Jahrbuch herausgegeben vom Verbande der deutschen 

 Akademien (vol. 1, for 1914-16, published in 1925; vol. 11 for 1929, pubhshed in 

 1932). 



The ADB contains biographies not only of Germans but of many other people, 

 Dutchmen, Belgians, Swiss, Poles, whom the editors saw fit to annex. E.g., it con- 

 tains elaborate biographies of Rembrandt, Vesalius, Jacob Steiner and Coperni- 

 cus. 



The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) contains biographies of people 

 born in Great Britain, Ireland, the British Commonwealth and colonies, and of Eng- 

 lishmen born abroad. It was begun in 1885 and the last (63 d. ) volume appeared 

 in 1900. It was reprinted in 22 volumes. Various supplements cover the period 

 1901-40; they include biographies of people who died before 1941. A "concise dic- 

 tionary," wherein the articles are reduced to one-fourteenth of their original length 



^ Sarton, Hoefer and Chevreul (Bulletin of the history of medicine, 8, 419-45, 1940). 



