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BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



120 



many jiersons in every age of civilisation and learning. But the study 

 must have been more systematically pursued, even in the ancient 

 world, by those whose business it was to arrange and take charge of 

 large libraries, of which we know that many, both public and private, 

 existed in Greece, in Egypt, at least under the Ptolemies, in Italy, and 

 in other countries. The principal booksellers of those days must also 

 have been more or less conversant with what we now call the science 

 of bibliography. We believe, however, that no professed treatise upon 

 the subject, or upon any part of it, has either come down to us from 

 antiquity, or is anywhere mentioned among the now lost productions 

 either of Greek or Roman learning. 



It is only since the invention of printing, and the consequent extra- 

 ordinary multiplication of books, that bibliography has, properly 

 speaking, assumed the form of a science, and been developed in its 

 principles and details in systematic works. 



In Germany, in Italy, in France, and also in our own country, works 

 in all the departments of bibliography have, within the last three 

 centuries, been produced in such numbers that the mere enumeration 

 of their titles would make a bulky volume. We can here notice only a 

 very few of the most important, and that chiefly for the purpose of 

 illustrating the different branches into which the subject may be 

 divided. 



The most numerous class of bibliographical works are lists or 

 catalogues of books ; but these are of various descriptions. Even 

 booksellers' catalogues are to be included under this head ; such 

 catalogues are collected and prized by bibliographers, as in many cases 

 affording evidence both of the prices of books and of the existence of 

 particular editions and copies. Some of them, from the superior rarity 

 of the articles which they include, or from bibliographical notices with 

 which they are interspersed, have a much higher value. The ' Biblio- 

 theca Anglo-Poetica,' for instance, published in 1815 by Messrs. 

 Longman and Co., is perhaps the fullest list that exists of the earlier 

 and rarer productions of English poetry, of many of which it also 

 contains interesting bibliographical descriptions. Under the same 

 head may be mentioned such publications as Reed's ' Bibliotheca Nova 

 Legum Anglisc ' (1809), and other catalogues of law-booksellers, in 

 which legal works are classified according to their subjects. Among 

 the most valuable sale catalogues, however, are some of those of the 

 libraries of individual collectors ; such, for example, as that of the late 

 Mr. Roscoe (prepared by himself ) and published in 1816, those of the 

 libraries of Dr. Parr (1827), of Mr. Heber (1834), of the Rev. H. F. 

 Lyte in 1849, but which contains little more than a literal reprint of 

 the titles arranged alphabetically according to the author's names ; and 

 above all, that of M. Libri (1859), which contains a large amount of 

 valuable information. Among the older English catalogues of the 

 libraries of private individuals, one of the scarcest is that of the large 

 library of Mr. Thomas Rawlinson, which was dispersed by auction in 

 1 722. This catalogue was published in parts, and is rarely to be found 

 complete. Rawlinson is the person satirised under the name of Tom 

 Folio, in the 158th number of the ' Tatler.' Some of the most cele- 

 brated of the foreign catalogues of this description are those of the 

 libraries of M. Cisternay du Fay (8vo, 1725), of the Comte de Hoym 

 (8vo, 1728), of the Abbe" Charles d'Orleansde Rothelin (8vo, 1746), and 

 of M. Claude Gros de Boze (8vo, 1753), all prepared by the Parisian 

 bookseller, Gabriel Martin. There is another catalogue of the library 

 of M. de Boze, printed under his own care at the royal press in small 

 folio in 1745, which is of extreme rarity, only fifty copies, it is said, 

 having been thrown off. De Bure states that a single copy has been 

 Bold for nearly 240 livres. In all these catalogues of Martin's the 

 books are arranged in classes according to a scheme of his own con- 

 trivance, and an alphabetical catalogue of the names of the authors is 

 given at the end. Perhaps, however, the most comprehensive and 

 valuable catalogue thus digested that has ever been published is that 

 entitled the 'Bibliotheca Bunaviana,' 7 vols. 4to, Leipzig, 1748-1756, 

 being a catalogue of the library of the Count de Bunau, drawn up by 

 his librarian, Jo. Mich. Franck. The divisions and subdivisions in this 

 catalogue are much more numerous than those in Martin's system. 

 The work has the highest character for accuracy, so far as it goes : but 

 unfortunately it never was completed. 



Some ' Catalogues Raisonnes ' (as catalogues in which the books are 

 thus disposed into classes according to their subjects are called by the 

 French) have also been printed of public libraries. The greatest work 

 of this description is probably that of the French ' Bibliothei |ue Royal,' 

 begun in 1739, and finished in ten volumes folio in 1753. This catalogue 

 consists of two parts, one of the printed books, and another of the manu- 

 script. The former was originally superintended by the Abbe's Sallier 

 and Boudot, the other by Anicet Mellot. The most complete catalogue 

 of this description in existence is understood to be that of the library 

 of the university of Gottingen, but it has not been printed. (See 

 an account of this Catalogue in the ' Quarterly Journal of Education,' 

 No. I V. ) The best specimen of a ' Catalogue Raisonne' ' that we know 

 of any of the more considerable public collections of this country, is 

 that of the library of the Writers to the Signet in Edinburgh, published 

 in one volume quarto in 1805. The catalogues of the libraries of some 

 mechanics' institute* and other private assfxiiations have more recently 

 liil ii] mil a .finiihir pl.-m. That of the London Institution 

 in Finalmry Circus, is an excellent specimen ; the works are classified 

 and described in the body, and there are two indexes, one of subjects, 



and one of authors and books, arranged alphabetically. It is to be 

 observed that a ' Catalogue Raisonne' ' implies something more than a 

 distribution of the books into so many distinct alphabets, severally 

 headed Theology, History, Voyages and Travels, Novels and Romances, 

 Poetry, Medicine, Law, &c., as we find done even in many catalogues 

 of circulating libraries, and booksellers' and auctioneers' sale catalogues. 

 In a ' Catalogue RaisonneY properly so called, the alphabetical arrange- 

 ment of titles is entirely dispensed with, its place being supplied by an 

 index at the end ; and eveiy work is set down in the order pointed out 

 by its subject, the ground over which the author's researches or specu- 

 lations extend being at the same time indicated as distinctly and fully 

 as possible, not only by the transcription of the title-page, but, when 

 necessary, by an abstract of the contents. This is especially clone in 

 the case of publications that consist of collections of treatises. 



There are printed catalogues of most of the public collections of 

 books in this country ; but, with the exceptions just mentioned, they 

 are all, we believe, merely alphabets of titles, and even as such few of 

 them have been very carefully drawn up. One of the most inaccurate 

 and deficient is the old catalogue of the printed books in the general 

 library of the British Museum, which was published in 1813-1819, in 

 seven octavo volumes. That of the Royal Library, in the same depo- 

 sitory (five volumes folio, besides a catalogue of maps, prints, &c., in 

 one volume, 1820-1829), was prepared with much greater care. The 

 great manuscript catalogue in the Reading-room of the British Museum 

 will, when completed, be probably the finest catalogue in Europe. 

 There are also excellent printed catalogues of the Harleian, Cottonian, 

 Lansdowne, Sloane, and Birch manuscripts, all preserved in this exten- 

 sive national collection. 



A higher description of catalogues are those not of particular collec- 

 tions, but of books generally, or of certain classes of books, arranged 

 in reference either to their subjects, their dates, their authors, or their 

 titles. 



One of the earliest attempts made to present in this way what we 

 may call a complete survey of printed literature was that of Conrad 

 Gesner, in his ' Bibliotheca Universalis,' published in one volume folio 

 in 1565. In this catalogue the works are arranged according to the 

 names of the authors ; but although designated an universal library, it 

 is confined to books in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages, which, 

 although comprehending by far the greater part, did not even then 

 include the whole of literature. Gesner, however, remains to the 

 present day without any successor in his vast enterprise. No subse- 

 quent work has appeared professing to survey in the same manner the 

 whole field of existing literature. The nearest approach that has been 

 made to anything of the kind is in the 'Bibliotheca Britannica' of 

 Dr. Robert Watt, of Glasgow, four vols. 4to, Edin. 1824. This is a 

 most elaborate, meritorious, and useful work ; but, as its title indi- 

 cates, it is to be considered as aiming at completeness only in regard to 

 English works; those which it notices in other languages, although 

 also amounting to a very large number, being professedly only a selec- 

 tion. Owing also to the residence of the author in a remote pro- 

 vincial town, where he was precluded from access to many of the most 

 valuable sources of information, his work is neither so full nor so 

 correct as with better opportunities it might have been made; and 

 some additional inaccuracies have crept into it from his not having 

 lived to see it through the press. With all these drawbacks, however, 

 it is still an extraordinary monument of industry, and a help to the 

 student of very great value. It consists of two parts, in the first of 

 which the books are arranged according to the names of the authors, 

 and in the second alphabetically according to their titles. 



In a few cases attempts have been made to present catalogues of all 

 the works written in some single language, or by the authors of some 

 single country. As examples of catalogues of this description may be 

 mentioned the 'Illustrium Majoris Britannia) Scriptorum Summarium' 

 of John Bale, first published in 1458 (for an account of which see 

 BALE, JOHN, in Bioo. Div.); the 'De Academiis et Illustribus Anglise 

 Scriptoribus ' of John Pits, the first volume of which (the only one 

 ever published) appeared at Paris, in 4to, in 1619 ; the ' Bibliotheca 

 Britanuico-Hibernica ' of Bishop Tanner, folio, 1748; the ' Bibliotheca 

 Belgica 1 of John Francis Foppens, 2 vols. 4to, 1739; and the 'Biblio- 

 theca Hispana, Nova et Vetus,' 4 vols. folio, 1672 and 1696, of 

 Nicholas Antonio. Under this head also may be mentioned the several 

 admirable works of John Albert Fabricius, entitled the ' Bibliotheca 

 Latina,' 2 vols. 4to; the 'Bibliotheca Medije et Infimse Latinitatis,' 6 

 vols. 4to ; and the ' Bibliotheca Graeca," the second edition of which, by 

 Harles, published at Hamburg in 1790-1809, is in 12 volumes, 4to. 

 Dr. Dibdin's ' Introduction to a Knowledge of Rare and Valuable 

 Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics,' first published in 1802, 

 has been several times reprinted, but is not of any great value. 



A much more numerous class of catalogues are those of all the books 

 written cither in some one language, or in all languages, upon a par- 

 ticular department of knowledge. Thus we have the ' Bibliotheca Theo- 

 logica,' the ' Bibliotheca Juridica,' the ' Bibliotheca Philosophica,' and the 

 ' Bibliotheca Medica,' of Martin Lipenius, or the whole collected in six 

 volumes, folio, under the title of ' Bibliotheca Realis.' To the ' Biblio- 

 theca Juridica ' valuable supplements were added by Scholt in 1775, 

 and by Seckenberg in 1789, which have increased the work to four 

 volumes folio. One of the very best of this class of works is the great 

 French work by the Pere Le Long, entitled ' Bibliotheque Historique 



