M. I'KKFA' 



Catalogue of the Advocates' Library, and Bowling's Notitia Scriptorum SS. Patruin 

 aliorunique veteris Ecclesiae Mouumentorum ; all of which are accessible ; as well as in 

 the Catalogues of the Bodleian Library, and that of Trinity College, Dublin, which could, 

 without any difficulty, be made available for consultation. 



The Catalogue, then, being neither bibliographical, classed, nor exhaustive in the 

 sense explained, is merely an arrangement, in alphabetical order, of the various headings 

 under which the books are to be sought, whether these headings consist of authors' 

 names, or of the word or words under which the entries would, in the judgment of the 

 compiler, be naturally looked for, with the titles and other particulars regarding the 

 books which the title-pages afford, or which have been gathered from other sources. 

 Aud it professes to accomplish little or nothing more than should be expected in a work 

 bearing even the simple and limited designation of a General Alphabetical Catalogue. 



Such being the nature and purpose of the Catalogue, it will be necessary to state the 

 principles on which it has been compiled, beginning with those which require expla- 

 nation or illustration ; and concluding with those which are so simple as to stand in 

 need of neither. 



I. ANONYMOUS BOOKS. 



In every considerable library these form an important element ; and their entry in 

 the way most likely to facilitate their discovery is admitted on all hands to be one of 

 the most serious difficulties which the compiler of a catalogue has to encounter. The 

 rule which has on its side the strongest arguments and the highest authority, is that 

 which requires the first word of the title not an article nor a preposition to be taken 

 as the heading of the primary entry (i. e. the entry which gives the title, imprint, date, 

 size, number of volumes, &c.), with the addition of the author's name, if ascertained. It 

 is essential to this rule that, under all the important words in the title, as well as under 

 the name of the author, when that is known, there should be secondary entries (i. e. entries 

 which contain the title in an abridged form, without any of the other particulars, except 

 the date), with a reference to the primary entry. There can be no doubt that the rule 

 thus indicated is calculated, if consistently followed out, to satisfy the inquiries of all 

 whose knowledge of the book is not so excessively vague as, in reality, to amount to 

 nothing. 



Because, however, the above rule requires for its successful application, a larger 

 number of secondary entries than space or time permitted, a method shorter, but less 

 satisfactory, although perhaps, in the main, sufficient for ordinary purposes, has been 

 adopted ; that, namely, of taking, as the heading for the primary entry, a word or words 

 in the title which all would probably regard as leading; and of adding, within brackets, 

 the author's name, if that has been discovered. For the secondary entry, the author's 

 name stands as the heading ; and under it, the title abridged, but containing, in small 



