WORKS OF REFERENCE ON ROMANCE PHILOLOGY 



(Prepared through courtesy of Professor Henry A . Todd) 



FOR the scholar already well versed in philological methods, the best survey of 

 the present problems of Romance philology is given in W. Meyer-Ltibke's Ein- 

 filhrung in das Studium der romanischen Sprachivissenschaft, Heidelberg, 1901, 

 12mo, pp. 214. This brief treatise contains classified bibliographical lists of the 

 most important works and periodical publications, and a certain amount of 

 elementary discussion, but, despite its title, is in the main too advanced and 

 abstruse to be used with advantage by the uninitiated. Much the same must 

 be said of G. Grober's monumental Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, Strass- 

 burg, 1888, and following years, large 8vo, 2 vols., in parts. (A new and thoroughly 

 revised edition of volume I was begun in 1905.) This strictly scientific work is 

 published with the cooperation of some twenty-five of the most competent 

 specialists, and for the trained scholar is the most valuable presentation, at once 

 systematic and collective, of the fundamentals of the subject. 



More available for the beginner, though of a different scientific value, is G. 

 Korting's Encyclopddie und Methodologie der romanischen Philologie, Heilbronn, 

 1884-88, 3 vols. 8vo., and the same author's Handbuch der romanischen Philologie, 

 Leipzig, 1896, 1 vol. 8vo. Although a "gekiirzte Neubearbeitung " of the Encyclo- 

 pddie, the Handbuch is largely a distinct work. Apart from its more recent 

 bibliographical information, it is scarcely to be compared with its prototype for 

 general usefulness. 



Important as are the bibliographies contained in all the above-mentioned works, 

 they by no means meet the needs of the student who is undertaking to make 

 original contributions to Romance scholarship. The task of discovering what, if 

 anything, has already been published on a given subject of investigation calls 

 for careful and patient search. A brief indication of the mode of procedure may 

 here be given. Without considering the earlier bibliographical sources, it will be 

 sufficient for the present purpose to call the learner's attention to the classified 

 and, as far as possible, complete bibliography, undertaken as a regular annual 

 supplement to the Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, edited by G. Grober, 

 since 1877. To determine what has been published throughout the world on any 

 specific subject since that date, the student's best recourse is to follow year by 

 year, under the appropriate classified rubric, the list of titles and references, 

 down to the latest published supplement. Unfortunately, owing to the vast labor 

 involved in the compilation, indexing, and publication of these supplements (in 

 recent years the number of entries averages between three and four thousand), 

 the Zeitschrift bibliography is several years in arrears. For the most recent period, 

 accordingly, the best recourse is to the very full but unclassified monthly lists of 

 the Litteraturblatt fur germanische und romanische Philologie, edited by O. Behag- 

 hel and F. Neumann, since 1880. Of the numerous other current bibliographical 

 aids the most important is the Kritischer Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der 

 romanischen Philologie, edited since 1890, by K. Vollmoller, aided by a large 

 number of special contributors. The Jahresbericht is also considerably in arrears. 



