CATALOGUES AND CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS. 



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as being vexatious and oppressive ; and as tending 

 to lessen the number of retail booksellers in the 

 country, and to prevent that competition that is so 

 advantageous. The discount allowed by the French 

 publishers to the retail dealers is not regulated as in 

 England, by the size of the volumes, but by the sub- 

 jects. The discount on the sale of books of history, 

 criticism, and general literature, is usually about 25 

 per cent. ; in the case of mathematical and strictly 

 scientific works, it is seldom more than 10 or 15 per 

 cent. ; while upon romances, tales, &c. it is often as 

 high as 50 or 60 per cent. 



In the Netherlands, the most important repositories 

 of books are at Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leyden, and 

 Haerlem. In Brussels and Liege, many French 

 works are reprinted. In Germany, several houses 

 rarely unite for the publication of great works, as is 

 done in France and Britain. In 1802, the booksel- 

 lers of the United States established a fair at New 

 York, and rules for its regulation. In Spain and 

 Portugal, the price of every book is regulated by the 

 government. 



Books, Catalogues of. Catalogues of books are 

 interesting if the libraries they describe contain a 

 great number of works (Bibliotheca Thottiana, Co- 

 penhagen, 1789-95, 7 parts, in 12 vols. ; Bibliotheca 

 Firmiana, Milan, 1783, 6 vols. ; Catalogue du Due 

 de la Falliere, Paris, 1783-88, 9 vols.), or are distin- 

 guished by well selected, by rare and costly works 

 (Cat. Bill. Harleiante, by Michael Maittaire, London, 

 1743-45, 5 vols.), or by scarce books merely (Cata- 

 logue of Sam. Engel, Bern, 1743, and Dan. Salthen, 

 Konigsberg, 1751), by old editions (J. F. Dibdin, 

 Biblioth. Spenceriana, London, 1814, 4 vols. ; Ferd. 

 Fossii, Cat. Codd. Sec. 15 Impressor. Bibl. Maglia- 

 becchiance, Florence, 1793, .'} vols. fol.), by beautiful 

 copies, particularly on parchment (Cat. de la Bibl. de 

 McCarthy, Paris, 1815, 2 vols.), or by being very rich 

 in some particular department. For natural history, 

 the most important catalogues are those of Sir Jos. 

 Banks (London, 1796, 5 vols.), and of Cobres (Augs- 

 burg, 1782, 2 vols.); for Hungarian history, that of 

 count Szecheny (Sopronii, 1790 et seq.) ; for classi- 

 cal literature, those of count Rewiczky (Berlin, 1794), 

 and of Askew (London, 1775), with some others ; for 

 French literature, the second part of the catalogue of 

 Vailiere ; for Italian literature, the catalogues of 

 Capponi (Rome, 1747, 4 vols.), Floncel (Paris, 1774, 

 2 vols.), and Ginguene (Paris, 1817); for the Ger- 

 man language, that of Adelung (Dresden, 1807). 

 Catalogues acquire their true value and utility by 

 judicious arrangement and accuracy of detail. For 

 this purpose, besides perfect exactness in the material 

 statements which must prevail throughout, and espe- 

 cially with regard to uncommon works, a notice of 

 the printer, number of pages, signatures, catchwords, 

 &c., and, in engravings, an account of the number 

 and quality of ttie impressions, and the artist's name, 

 are necessary. Above all, a clear arrangement of 

 the books is requisite, that they may be easily con- 

 sulted. In this department, the French took the 

 lead. Gabriel Naude opened the way by the Cata- 

 logus Bibliot/tecce Cordesianee (Paris, 1643, 4 vols.): 

 he was followed by Ishmael Bull old us and Jos. 

 Quesnel, in the Cat, Bib. Thuance (Paris, 1679). 

 Gabriel Martin, a bookseller at Paris, distinguished 

 himself, in the 18th century, by a further attention 

 to the method of arrangement, and, at the same time, 

 by bibliographical accuracy, (Catalogues of Bulteau, 

 1711, du Fay, 1725, Brochard, 1729, count Hoym, 

 1738). On the foundation laid by Martin, Debure 

 built, in the catalogue of Gaignat, 1769 ; and in the 

 preparation of the first part of Valliere's catalogue, as 

 well as in the arrangement of the second part, the 

 bookseller Nyou followed him with success. About 



this time, Jac. Morelli, in Venice, published a cata- 

 logue of the excellent library of Mafieo Piuelli 

 (Venice, 1787, 6 vols.), distinguished by similar 

 merits. All these catalogues, however, were pre- 

 pared only to facilitate the sale of the books enumer- 

 ated, and aspired to nothing higher. The earlier 

 catalogues of the Bodleian (Oxford, 1738, 2 vols. 

 fol.) and Parisian libraries, (1739, 6 vols. fol.), are 

 very defective. John Michael Francke, in his cata- 

 logue of the library of Bunau (Leipsic, 1750, 7 

 vols. 4to), and Audiffredi, in the alphabetical cata- 

 logue of the library of Casanati (Rome, 1761, 4 

 vols. fol.), have distinguished themselves as scientific 

 bibliothecarians. Both works, though incomplete, 

 are excellent models. Catalogus Biblioth. Academies 

 Theresiance, by Joseph de Sartori (Vienna, 1801, 

 13 vols. 4to), is full of errors and defects, and is, 

 by no means to be compared to the former of the 

 above-mentioned works. There are, lastly, criti- 

 cal catalogues (cat. raisonnes) which contain more 

 minute information and opinions, descriptions of 

 uncommon and remarkable books, and sometimes 

 accounts of their prices. Besides the few generally 

 interesting works of this nature by John Fabricius 

 (Wolfenb., 1717, 6 vols. 4to), Jac. Fred. Reimmann 

 (Hildesh., 1731, 2 vols. 4to), Gotlieb Stolle (Jena, 

 1733, 18 vols. 4to), and others, the catalogues of 

 Crevenna (Amsterdam, 1778, 6 vols. 4tp), Serna San- 

 tander (Brussels, 1803, 5 vols.), and lord Spencer 

 (see above), and Denis's Memorabilia of the Library 

 of Garelli (Vienna, 1780, 4to), are very valuable. See 

 Bibliography. 



Books, Censorship of. Unless we consider the 

 burning of condemned books under the Roman em- 

 perors as a censorship, the establishment of this insti- 

 tution must be attributed to the popes ; but it cannot 

 be denied, that it would have sprung up in a thousand 

 other places, even if it had not existed in their domin- 

 ions. Soon after the invention of printing, the popes 

 perceived the influence which this art exerted over 

 the diffusion of knowledge. It was, besides, doubly 

 dangerous at a time when the authority of the church 

 had been assailed, and was shaking under the load of 

 its abuses. They endeavoured, therefore, to prohibit 

 first the reading, and secondly the printing, of cer- 

 tain literary works. They enforced the ancient de- 

 crees of the church against the reading of heretical 

 books, and introduced an ecclesiastical superinten- 

 dency of the press in 14*9 and 1496, which was more 

 completely established by a bull of Leo X., in 1515. 

 In this, the bishops and inquisitors were required to 

 examine all works before they were printed, and thus 

 to prevent the publication of heretical opinions. 

 They went still further : as this papal decree could 

 not be carried into execution in all countries, on ac- 

 count of the reformation, they prepared an index of 

 books which nobody was allowed to read under 

 penalty of the censure of the church. This index 

 was commenced by the council of Trent, in the fourth 

 session of which (1546), the decree of the censorship 

 was renewed ; but it was not executed, and was finally 

 left to the popes (25th session of 1563), by whom se- 

 veral such Indices Librorum prohibitorum have been 

 published. Even in recent times, in 1758, such an 

 augmented index was issued. Works of an estab- 

 lished character, which could not well be prohibited 

 it was determined to expurgate. The duke of Alva 

 caused such art Index expurgatorius to be prepared 

 in the Netherlands; another was drawn up at Rome, 

 in 1607, which, however, with the exception of some 

 fragments, has remained secret. This censorship was 

 soon afterwards adopted by the secular authority, 

 and, in some respects, extended still further. 



In Germany, the politico-theological controversies 

 gave the first occasion for the introduction of this in 



