Transcriber's Note:
_Underscores_ surround italicized text.
Carats (^) indicate that the characters following are superscripts.
Remaining notes are at the end of the text.
* * * * *
A
History
of
Bibliographies of
Bibliographies
_by_
Archer Taylor
The Scarecrow Press
New Brunswick, N.J. 1955
Copyright 1955, by Archer Taylor.
_For_
_Stanley Pargellis_
Preface
In the following essay I use the term "bibliography of
bibliographies" only for works of universal scope. Accordingly I
discuss neither such national bibliographies as Giuseppe Ottino and
Giuseppe Fumagalli's _Bibliotheca bibliographica italiana_ (Rome,
1889) nor such special lists as Gabriel Peignot's _Répertoire des
bibliographies spéciales_ (Paris, 1808) and _A List of Bibliographies
of Special Subjects_ (Chicago, 1902) issued by the John Crerar
Library. I exclude also lists of reference works.
Other groups of books have demanded less arbitrary handling.
In general, I have ruled out chapters on the bibliography of
bibliographies in handbooks of library science. By the same token,
I have included neither classified library catalogues, public or
private, nor catalogues of private libraries owned by scholars or
bibliographers in special fields. Finally I discuss only those
subject indexes that were published before the bibliography
of bibliographies was recognized as an independent scholarly
undertaking, such as Conrad Gesner's _Pandectae_ (1548) and Israel
Spach's _Nomenclator_ (1598). All later subject indexes in which the
bibliography of bibliographies is subsidiary to other purposes, have
been excluded.
The bibliographies cited by short titles or the author's names are
listed in full in the Bibliography. I have given locations for rare
books only, and then only for the copies that I have used. I have
not tried to identify the works cited in quotations illustrating
bibliographical method or to correct errors in such quoted titles,
except when the book is difficult to identify or when a correction is
pertinent to the discussion of the writer's bibliographical technique.
Various friends have generously read this essay in manuscript and
have offered suggestions for its improvement. I am greatly indebted
to them for this assistance. Dr. Arnold Weinberger of Harvard
University Library has given me general advice and many comments on
details. Taylor Starck of Harvard University, Lawrence S. Thompson,
Director of the University of Kentucky Library, and Hugh G. Dick
of the University of California at Los Angeles have given me good
counsel. Anne E. Markley of the University of California, School of
Librarianship read the manuscript with painstaking care and helped me
to avoid many errors.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
I. The Beginnings of the Bibliography
of Bibliographies 1
II. The Bibliography of Bibliographies Comes
of Age 21
III. Lists of Books Entitled "Bibliotheca" 47
IV. The Bibliography of Bibliographies Begins Anew 61
V. Bibliographies of Bibliographies as Periodical and
Cooperative Enterprises 105
VI. Conclusion 131
Bibliography 137
Index 147
Chapter I
Beginnings of the Bibliography of Bibliographies
The introduction to St. Jerome's _De viris illustribus_ written in
A.D. 392 may contain the first bibliography of bibliographies. Here
we find a list of nine men who had written bibliographies of various
kinds. St. Jerome writes as follows:
You urge me, Dexter, to arrange ecclesiastical writers in
imitation of Suetonius[1] and to do for men of our faith
what he has done in listing men famous in heathen letters.
Among the Greeks some have done the same thing: Hermippus
Peripateticus,[2] Antigonus Carystius,[3] the learned
Satyrus,[4] and Aristoxenus, the musician,[5] who was by
far the most learned, [and] furthermore, among the Romans,
Varro,[6] Santra,[7] Nepos, Hyginus, and Suetonius, whom you
cite as a model.[8]
After a brief digression St. Jerome refers to Eusebius,
_Ecclesiastical History_, which he has found very useful, and then
concludes with an allusion to Cicero, whom few would now think of as
a bibliographer. In this passage he makes it clear that bibliography
was not highly esteemed even in A.D. 392:
And so I pray to the Lord Jesus Christ that, since your master
Cicero, who stood at the pinnacle of Roman eloquence, has not
disdained to compile a list of orators in the Latin language in
his _Brutus_, I may execute such a task worthily, pursuant to
your request, by listing the writers of His church.
St. Jerome's list is an altogether acceptable bibliography of
bibliographies. It includes Antigonus Carystius and Satyrus who wrote
general biobibliographies, and Aristoxenus who listed the pupils of
Isocrates or the writers of tragedy. We can infer that St. Jerome saw
a common element in the works of all these men. This common element
is the idea of a list or bibliography. Had he cited only writers of
general biobibliographies, we might imagine that he thought of them
as historians or chroniclers. In the context of an introduction to
his own bibliography of Christian writers he must have thought of
them as bibliographers. He neglected to mention many other early
bibliographers with whom he was probably familiar.
Almost thirteen centuries later Philip Labbé, whom we shall learn
to know as the first author of a bibliography of bibliographies to
be published as a separate work, found St. Jerome's list and after
making some additions, put it in alphabetical order. He could not
find a proper place for it in his own bibliography of bibliographies,
the _Bibliotheca bibliothecarum_ of 1664, and buried it without
any apparent reason immediately after a reference to a book by
Constantinus Felicius that dealt with Cicero's exile and glorious
return. I suspect that the slip containing this information had been
misplaced in his manuscript. Labbé wrote as follows:
Besides Damastes Sigiaeus,[9] many have written on the
lives of scholars, for example, Agatharcides of Cnidus,[10]
Amphicrates,[11] Antigonus Carystius, Aristoxenus, Artemon
of Magnesia,[12] the Carthaginian Charon,[13] Clearchus
of Soli,[14] Hermippus of Smyrna, Satyrus, Timagenes of
Miletus,[15] and others, and among Latin writers, Varro,
Santra, Nepos, [and] Hyginus, whom St. Jerome cites along with
Suetonius on p. 62.[16]
Labbé's careless treatment of this information suggests that he had
not finished preparing it for publication. The text itself is not
entirely intelligible. He did not put it, as St. Jerome had done, in
the introduction and failed to find any other logical place for it.
St. Jerome's list obviously interested Labbé, for he quoted it again
in the article "Sanctus Hieronymus." When Antoine Teissier revised
and enlarged the _Bibliotheca bibliothecarum_ in 1686, he came
upon this duplication and retained only the passage in the article
"Sanctus Hieronymus."
Except the long-forgotten Labbé, subsequent bibliographers know
nothing of St. Jerome's brief list. It did not set anyone to writing
bibliographies of bibliographies, and no example has been reported
in the almost uncharted area of bibliographical history that lies
between St. Jerome and the Renaissance.
Modern bibliographies of bibliographies begin as sections in general
subject indexes. In any such index bibliography is, as a matter of
course, represented. Conrad Gesner's _Pandectae_, 1548,[16a] which
is the first subject index to be printed, begins with bibliography.
The first book (_liber_) of the _Pandectae_ is entitled "De
grammatica" and deals with the classification and organization
of knowledge.[17] Chapter (_titulus_) XIII, with which we are
especially concerned, is a treatise on general bibliography.[18] Its
eight sections (_partes_) deal with books of general usefulness
and some related matters. Pars i, "Greek and Latin Writers of
Miscellanies and of Books Containing Critical Comments on More than
One Author," is well described by its title. Gesner divides it into
two parts: "Greek Miscellanies," including such works as Aelian,
_Varia historia_;[19] Athenaeus, _Deipnosophistae_;[20] Clement
of Alexandria, _Stromata_;[21] and Johannes Tzetzes, _Historia
varia_.[22] Books of this sort were reference works consulted
for information on almost any subject. To this alphabetical list
Gesner adds three titles: the accounts of marvels found in various
works by Aristotle; Julius Pollux, _Onomasticon_; and Plutarch,
_Symposium_.[23] For a bibliography of books of table talk similar
to Plutarch's work Gesner refers the reader to _Liber Politica,
Titulus Convivia_.[24] He adds a concluding remark that Caelius
Rhodiginus and Nicolaus Leonicenus--men who had written widely used
contemporary miscellanies--as well as other makers of compilations
have drawn freely on the authorities that he has listed. Gesner is a
good bibliographer. He has arranged these titles carefully and has
clearly indicated how much he knows about them and the translations
of them.
The second part of Titulus XIII, Pars i, is devoted to Latin
miscellanies. It begins with Alexander ab Alexandro (Alessandro
Alessandri, d. 1523), _Geniales dies_, "which contains grammatical
and legal collectanea and comments on various authors." Gesner
remarks that he has preferred to cite miscellanies and collections
of _loci communes_ because a separately printed treatise can be
easily found but the information in a miscellany is likely to be
overlooked.[25] He then names some fifteen Latin miscellanies of
various dates according to the first names of the authors. Among
them are the writings of Angelo Poliziano, Aulus Gellius, the
_Adagia_ of Erasmus, the _Varia_ of Cassiodorus, the _Saturnalia_
of Macrobius, the _De honesta disciplina_ by Petrus Crinitus, and
the _De inventoribus rerum_ by Polydore Vergil. This mingling
of classical and contemporary authorities is characteristic of
Renaissance scholarship. Gesner concludes with a citation of a
quarto _Miscellanea_ printed in Paris by Gormont and written by an
unidentified author (_nescio quo authore_).[26]
Gesner's free use of cross-references shows how carefully he planned
his book. For example, he reminds the reader that miscellanies
dealing with such natural objects as metals, stones, animals, and
plants will be found in the book entitled _Physica_,[27] those
concerned with the words and deeds of famous men will be found in
Caelius Rhodiginus,[28] and epistolographers, who may be thought
of as authors of books of a miscellaneous character, will be found
in a later section.[29] In a subdivision indicated by a paragraph
sign but without a centerhead Gesner says that dictionaries contain
miscellaneous information, cites examples, and adds a cross-reference
to his discussion of dictionaries. As is evident, he has covered the
sources of miscellaneous information rather fully.
In a second division of this part Gesner names writers who have
written comments on several authors and have printed them in a
single volume. He cites eleven examples, beginning with Bassianus
Landus (Bassiano Landi, d. 1562), _Epiphyllides_[30] and including
the manuscript notes of his contemporary, the Neapolitan grammarian,
L. J. Scoppa. Since the _Epiphyllides_ does not seem to have been
printed and a contemporary scholar's manuscript notes are obviously
difficult to find, Gesner can be said to have taken great pains with
the list. He excludes those who have written one or more volumes of
commentary on a single author.
In Pars ii, _De indicibus librorum_, an extremely interesting
discussion of indexes with rather little bibliographical baggage,
Gesner differentiates and discusses several varieties and brings
his discussion of methods to a close with some remarks about page
numbers and chapter numbers.[31] A paragraph sign sets off a list
of indexes to various books, chiefly editions of the classics and
Biblical or patristic writings. This list would have been very useful
to H. B. Wheatley in writing _What is an Index?_ (London, 1879).
On the next page (fols. 21^a-21^b) Gesner names a few publishers'
catalogues and, after a paragraph sign, a few library catalogues.[32]
Pars ii ends with a long discussion of the ways of cataloguing books
(fols. 21^b-22^b).
Pars iii, _Problemata, Quaestiones & Disputationes_, is a strictly
bibliographical account of special varieties of miscellanies.[33]
The next two Partes contain a discussion of the methodology of
note-taking and are not directly bibliographical in nature. Pars vi
lists some forty collections of commonplaces (fols. 27^b-28^a). Among
them are Antonius Corvinus's arrangement of Erasmus's _Apophthegmata_
in commonplaces,[34] Stobaeus, Thomas Hibernicus,[35] Maximus
Planudes (who expurgated and arranged the Greek Anthology in _loci
communes_), Otto Brunfels (whose _Pandectae sacrae_[36] Gesner has
used freely), and Valerius Maximus. Such books were more or less like
general reference works. Here, as elsewhere, Gesner names classical
and contemporary writers in a single list.
We have been examining thus far Gesner's account of general reference
works and come finally to the seventh pars, which is the most
interesting division of the titulus for a student of bibliographical
history. It is entitled _Bibliographies, i.e. alphabetical list of
catalogues of books, the classification of books, the care of them,
mottoes, and the buildings_.[37] This title is virtually the table
of contents of a handbook of library science.[38] We shall consider
only the first sections of this pars and in particular Gesner's
bibliography of bibliographies.
Gesner begins the seventh pars with miscellaneous notes on pertinent
books and on libraries. He carefully separates these notes from the
following bibliography of bibliographies. This is an alphabetical
list of thirty-one names, beginning with
Alberti Magni de antiquis authorib. astronomiae liber[39] Amphicrates
de viris illustrib. scripsit, Athenaeo teste Apollodorus Athenien.
Bibliothecae pars etiamnun extat.
In this list Gesner includes both general and special bibliographies.
He cites St. Jerome's _De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_ (a variant
title of the _De viris illustribus_) and the continuations by Bede,
Gennadius of Marseilles, Honorius Augustodunensis, Isidore of
Seville, and Sigebert of Gembloux; Johannes Tritheim, who compiled
the original work of St. Jerome and the continuations into a single
volume; and Sophronius, who translated it into Greek. He cites
contemporary legal bibliographies, one by Bernardinus Rutilius
(Bernardino Rutilio, 1504-1538), who dealt with men of his own time,
and another by Johannes Fichardus (Johann Fichard, 1512-1581), the
often published _Juris consultorum vitae veterum quidem_, which
surveyed older authorities.[40] He has seen or heard of Jacob Rueff's
survey of astrologers, Lilio Gregorio Giraldi's literary history,
Otto Brunfels's bibliography of medicine in classical times, and
Philip Ribot's biobibliographical dictionary of the Carmelite order.
The last he has not seen but believes to have been utilized by
Johannes Tritheim.
These names illustrate the variety of bibliographies known to Gesner
and his clear conception of what a bibliography of bibliographies
should be. He has admitted only pertinent books and has arranged
their titles carefully in alphabetical order according to first
names. He has given sources for citations that he has not verified
and for books that he knows to be in manuscript or probably lost.
He has commented occasionally on the quality of a book or has told
how it was arranged. For example, he says that Rueff's astrological
bibliography contains pictures of men and instruments and comments in
German verse. He does not give the dates and places of publication,
but bibliographers have been slow to learn the importance of citing
these details. No doubt he expected his readers to consult his
biobibliographical dictionary, the _Bibliotheca universalis_ of 1545,
for that information. A sixteenth-century scholar, who was accustomed
to find books arranged according to format, might have complained
that Gesner did not indicate the size of the books. In his procedure
he goes beyond St. Jerome, who was content to cite only names. Gesner
cites titles.
In Pars viii, "De mirabilibus," the last subdivision of Titulus
XIII, Gesner gives a hasty account of books about marvels and
noteworthy things. Although he cites several lost classical works on
the subject and Alessandro Alessandri, _Geniales dies_, which had
appeared in print a generation before the _Pandectae_, he makes no
great effort to deal bibliographically with the subject. He obviously
regards such works as collections of odds and ends and therefore
akin to miscellanies. He says, for example, that geographers tell
strange tales about the shapes and manners of men and the nature
of countries, skies, and seas. He could, he says, have given here
references to ancient statues and inscriptions, but has preferred
to classify them under history. Poetry and invented tales might
also be mentioned and riddles, he thinks, are not to be neglected.
The remaining tituli of the first book deal with matters akin to
grammar in its usual modern sense but include several specialized
bibliographies that we need not examine closely.[41] Gesner's
bibliography of bibliographies represents an auspicious beginning of
a very difficult variety of bibliography.
The foregoing details about the first book in Gesner's _Pandectae_
make clear Gesner's skill in organization and classification as well
as the place that the bibliography of bibliographies had in his
scheme. They give some notion of sixteenth-century scholarship and
explain why Gesner's _Pandectae_ failed to be continued or revised
and, more especially, why his bibliography of bibliographies has not
been noticed. Even A. G. S. Josephson, who had a very sharp eye for
bibliographies of bibliographies concealed as chapters in subject
indexes, did not come upon Gesner's work. Josephson's study will be
mentioned in its proper place at the end of this essay. Gesner's
subject bibliography was not appreciated fully because it contained
many references to classical sources and did not give a comprehensive
account of contemporary writings. Although Gesner's classification
was logical and although he adhered with remarkable care to the
categories that he set up, no one but Gesner himself could make
additions to the book or revise it.
It remains to say a word about the relation of the _Pandectae_
to the book of which it forms a part. Gesner published four
volumes--the _Bibliotheca universalis_ of 1545, the _Pandectae_ of
1548, the _Partitiones_ of 1549, and the _Appendix_ of 1555--that
are ordinarily regarded as a single work. The _Bibliotheca_ and
the _Appendix_ constitute a biobibliographical dictionary. The
_Pandectae_ and the _Partitiones_ are a subject index that lacks
a promised section on medicine. The dictionary and the index have
no close relations to each other, except to the degree that the
dictionary gives additional information about books cited by authors'
names in the index. In Gesner's situation a modern scholar would have
distributed according to subjects the slips that he had made for his
biobibliographical dictionary and would thus have obtained a subject
index almost immediately. Gesner did not proceed in this way, but
undertook and completed the subject index as a virtually independent
work.
The next man to write a bibliography of bibliographies gives no
evidence of having read Gesner's work or, more specifically, of
having come upon Gesner's bibliography of bibliographies. He is
Israel Spach (1560-1610), who wrote a general subject index at
the end of the sixteenth century. In the bibliographical section,
"Writers of Bibliographies (Bibliothecarum scriptores)," of his
_Nomenclator philosophorum et philologicorum_, (1598), Spach
names twenty-nine books. Of these only two medical and two legal
bibliographies were known to Gesner, and one of these legal
bibliographies is cited in a better edition that appeared long
after the publication of the _Pandectae_. Spach's emphasis lies on
contemporary works. Although he mentions the medieval continuators
of St. Jerome, he does not mention St. Jerome himself. Inasmuch as
these continuators were brought together in Johannes Tritheim, _De
viris illustribus_, which he cites,[42] he could have dispensed
with them. He begins with Antoine du Verdier's supplement (1585) to
Gesner's _Bibliotheca universalis_ and then mentions Apollodorus,
whose _Bibliotheca_ was still unpublished. Apollodorus and
Claudius Ptolemy, _Sententiae_ (also unpublished) are the only two
bibliographers of classical times that he names. Spach knows general
works like Conrad Gesner's _Bibliotheca_, Robert Constantin's
compilation (1555) that purported to be a supplement to it, and
Nicolaus Basse's cumulation (1592) of the semi-annual catalogues of
the German booktrade; national bibliographies like Anton Francesco
Doni's _La libraria_ (1556)[43] and John Bale's list of English
authors; and, finally, bibliographies of special disciplines like
ecclesiastical history, medicine (Otto Brunfels and Symphorien
Champier), and law. In these categories he has chosen appropriate
books. Although he includes Hierimias Paduanus, who wrote a very
popular collection of _loci communes_ that circulated also under the
name of Thomas Hibernicus (Thomas Palmer),[44] he agrees with Gesner
in preferring to list such works separately.
In the fifty years between the publication of Gesner's _Pandectae_
and Spach's _Nomenclator_ bibliographers had come to recognize
the value of several kinds of compilations that Gesner had not
chosen to include. For example, Spach cites the catalogues issued
by publishers,[45] a category that Gesner knew but separated from
his bibliography of bibliographies. He includes some titles that
most bibliographers would not now include in a bibliography of
bibliographies, for example, a book dealing with the book trade,[46]
a book dealing with a particular library,[47] a famous catalogue of
Greek manuscripts at Augsburg.[48] Titles such as Wolfgang Lazius,
_Catalogus partim suorum, partim aliorum scriptorum_[49] do not
indicate clearly the contents of the book. Spach has thrown his net
wide and has caught some fish that we can not call bibliographies.
Nevertheless, all the works that he cites deal with books, and we
shall not quarrel with him for including treatises on the Frankfurt
book fair or the Vatican library. Two titles show how widely he
ranged in the search for materials. John Boston's fourteenth-century
union catalogue of manuscripts owned in England has come to his
knowledge,[50] and he has picked up Claudius Ptolemy, _Sententiae
sive de utilitate librorum_,[51] which was, in one form or another,
a popular book about books during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Spach's omission of regional or national bibliographies
and biobibliographical dictionaries, except for Bale and Doni, and of
biobibliographical dictionaries of the religious orders is obvious.
Perhaps he regarded them as historical rather than bibliographical
reference works.
As we have seen, Spach offers a good account of sixteenth-century
bibliographies and especially of those published in the latter
half of the century. When taken in conjunction with Gesner's
earlier bibliography, which reviewed classical writers and his own
contemporaries, Spach's list provides us with a good account of
sixteenth-century bibliography.
The bibliographical section, "Writers of Bibliographies
(Bibliothecarum Scriptores)," in a general subject index entitled
_Bibliotheca philosophica_ (1616) by Paulus Bolduanus continues the
tradition represented by Gesner and Spach. I have not been able
to learn much about the life and works of this obscure Pomeranian
minister of the gospel, who apparently lived and died in or near the
village of Stolp.[52] He wrote bibliographies of theology, history,
and philosophy between 1614 and 1622, publishing in the latter year
a supplement to his theological bibliography. Petzholdt rightly
commends (pp. 458-459) the _Bibliotheca philosophica_ as superior
to Spach's _Nomenclator_ but curiously fails to see that Bolduan's
notion of philosophy was in general use in the first half of the
seventeenth century. A _bibliotheca philosophica_ of that time would
include as a matter of course everything but theology, law, and
medicine. Petzholdt praises (pp. 771-772) Bolduan's _Bibliotheca
historica_ (1620) as a respectable work that shows bibliographical
skill and accuracy. These are kinder words than Petzholdt can
ordinarily find for a seventeenth-century bibliography and are a
corrective to Burkhard Gotthelf Struve's harsh judgment: "In our day,
when other works of this sort are available, we can easily dispense
with these efforts."[53]
Bolduan's bibliography of bibliographies[54] is both longer and more
carefully made than Spach's. He has arranged nearly seventy titles
alphabetically according to the first names of the authors. He cites
catalogues of university libraries (only the Leyden catalogue of
1595 could have been within Spach's reach and he did not know it),
the compilations made for the book trade by Nicolaus Basse, Johannes
Clessius, and Henning Grosse, the ubiquitous publisher's lists
issued by Goltzius and Oporinus, and bibliographical dictionaries of
various subjects and the religious orders. Like Spach, whose list he
seems to have taken over completely, he has heard of John Boston's
catalogue and, like Spach, is ignorant of the author's first name
and is compelled to cite it under "Bostonus." He corrects Spach's
misspelling of Muzio Pansa's name. He does not, however, include any
classical Greek or Latin bibliographers. We can therefore infer that
he did not find Gesner's bibliography of bibliographies, where they
were mentioned. He might have omitted them on principle, but he also
fails to mention some early sixteenth-century bibliographies known
to Gesner which he would surely have included, had he known them. An
example of such a bibliography is Jacob Rueff's book on astrology.
Bolduan names no title that cannot be called a bibliography in
some sense. In both extent and accuracy he surpasses Spach. As
comparison with Theodore Besterman, _The Beginnings of Systematic
Bibliography_,[55] shows, this competent workman gives a good account
of the bibliographies available in 1616.
A dozen years later, in 1628, Franciscus Sweertius (Francis Sweerts,
1567-1629) printed a bibliography of bibliographies about as large as
that by Bolduan. He does not cite his predecessors and probably did
not know them. This learned Antwerp merchant and author of several
scholarly works printed his bibliography of bibliographies in his
_Athenae Belgicae_.[56] It has no organic relation to Sweerts's
purpose of writing a Belgian biobibliographical dictionary. In this
compilation, which has a slightly stronger theological tinge than
its predecessors, Sweerts lists seventy-eight bibliographies in
twenty paragraphs according to subjects. This is, therefore, the
first classified bibliography of bibliographies. Except in five
instances with such headings as "De Bibliothecis" and "De Vitis &
Scriptoribus Ord. S. Dominici," the subjects are to be inferred from
the typographical arrangement. Although he has not completely worked
out a scheme of organization, he progresses from general works on
libraries and books to special bibliographies of theology, law,
and medicine. He is less careful than Spach and Bolduan about the
bibliographical details of place and date of publication, but the
need for this information was just beginning to be recognized at
the time when he wrote. He adheres closely to the idea of listing
bibliographies and admits only one perhaps pardonable interloper, a
compilation of the Church Fathers. It is curious that he cites the
_Bibliotheca theologica_ by Johannes Molanus (Jean van der Meulen),
which was published in 1618, as being still in manuscript. Later
bibliographers have picked up all the titles cited by Sweerts and
his selection does not differ sufficiently from that made by Spach
and Bolduan to need characterization by quoting titles. Sweerts
wrote the first independent or almost independent bibliography of
bibliographies and at the same time the first classified bibliography
of bibliographies.
The four bibliographies of bibliographies published in the eighty
years between Gesner's _Pandectae_ (1548) and Sweert's _Athenae
Belgicae_ (1628) are, as their authors intended them to be,
relatively complete. In _The Beginnings of Systematic Bibliography_,
Theodore Besterman adds only a few rather unimportant titles
and these may indeed not have seemed to be bibliographies or to
have deserved mention in the eyes of Gesner and his successors.
Instructive technical developments are evident in these first four
compilations. Gesner cites both classical Greek and Latin works and
contemporary bibliographies. Spach, Bolduan, and Sweerts adopt the
modern practice of preferring to list bibliographies of contemporary
usefulness. Gesner, Spach, and Bolduan do not separate their work
from the larger task of writing a general subject index. Sweerts
sees that the bibliography of bibliographies can be an independent
enterprise. Gesner, Spach, and Bolduan offer alphabetical lists.
Sweerts adopts the modern plan of a classified list. Although the
bibliography of bibliographies has continued to be a necessary part
of a general subject index, I shall limit myself in the following
discussion to bibliographies of bibliographies that have been
published as separate works.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] St. Jerome has in mind the _De illustribus grammaticis_ and
_De rhetoribus_ by Suetonius. For a discussion of Latin writers of
biobibliography see Wilhelm Ludwig Schmidt, _De Romanorum imprimis
Suetonii arte biographica_ (Diss.; Marburg, 1891).
[2] Hermippus of Smyrna wrote on legislators, the Seven Sages, and
the pupils of Isocrates. He or another Hermippus wrote a _De viris
illustribus_, which is probably the book intended by St. Jerome. For
more information about Hermippus and the other writers mentioned
in this passage see Joannes Jonsius, _De scriptoribus historiae
philosophiae_ (Frankfurt a.M., 1659) and such a modern authority as
Wilhelm von Christ, _Geschichte der griechischen Literatur_ (6th
ed., Munich, 1920). I recommend Jonsius because he makes clear the
bibliographical aspect of these writers. There is no adequate account
of classical Greek and Latin bibliographical writings.
[3] Antigonus, who is often cited by Diogenes Laertius in his
biobibliography of philosophers, wrote a general biobibliography that
is now lost.
[4] Satyrus wrote a _De viris illustribus_ in dialogue that may have
been Plutarch's model.
[5] The polymath Aristoxenus is credited with a book on the writers
of tragedy. This may be the book intended here. Plutarch admired his
biographical dictionary. See Jonsius, pp. 73-78.
[6] Pliny (_Natural History_, 35.2) cites Varro's _De imaginibus_
which contained five hundred or more _imagines_ or characterizations,
probably with illustrations. Varro also wrote accounts of poets,
rhetoricians, and libraries.
[7] Like the following authors, Santra wrote a biobibliographical
dictionary.
[8] Quoted from the edition of St. Jerome's _De viris illustribus_ in
J. A. Fabricius, _Bibliotheca ecclesiastica_, Hamburg, 1718, p. 13.
I have used this edition because it contains useful notes on these
authors.
[9] A pupil of the Milesian historian Hellanicus and author of an
account of the ancestors of the men who fought at Troy, a catalogue
of tribes and cities, and a book on poets and sophists.
[10] The author of various geographical treatises, among which I see
nothing clearly bibliographical in nature. See a very interesting
account in Jonsius, pp. 173-175, which begins by raising the question
whether Agatharcides is to be considered a writer of bibliography.
[11] The author of a general biobibliography.
[12] The author of a book on famous women.
[13] The author of four books on famous men and four books on famous
women.
[14] A disciple of Aristotle and the author of a collection of
biographies.
[15] The author of a treatise on Heraclea in Pontus and its famous
men. This is an early instance of a regional biobibliography.
[16] See _Bibliotheca bibliothecarum_ (Rouen, 1672), p. 40, Leipzig,
1682, p. 67. I have not tried to run down Labbé's reference to "St.
Jerome, p. 62." Something has gone wrong with Labbé's introductory
words: "Ex antiquis Damastae Sigiaeo facile quoque fuerit plures
qui de vitis Eruditorum Hominum scripserunt, puta Agatharcidem
Cnidium,..." The sense is, however, obvious.
[16a] For the bibliographical details of the bibliographies of
bibliographies cited in this essay see the "Bibliography."
[17] Fols. 1^a-42^b. This meaning of _grammatica_ (grammar) is still
seen in the titles of such books as Cardinal Newman's _An Essay in
Aid of a Grammar of Assent_ (London, 1870); Karl Pearson's _The
Grammar of Science_ (London, 1892); and Kenneth Burke's _A Grammar of
Motives_ (New York, 1945). For other references see _A New English
Dictionary_, s.v. "grammar," 6.
[18] "De varijs," fols. 18^a-30^b.
[19] There is an unpublished translation by Conrad Clauser. Gesner
gives this information and the information in the four following
notes. I have quoted it to show his careful procedure as a
bibliographer.
[20] Stephanus Niger (fl. 1498) has translated a large portion and
there is also, it is said, a translation by Hieronymus Parisetus
(1520-1600). A complete translation, which is said to exist in Italy,
has not yet been printed.
[21] Fragments are extant, and scraps have been printed in Heraclides
Ponticus, _De furtis poetarum_. [This is a reference to Heraclitus
(sic) Ponticus, _Allegoriae in Homeri fabulas_ ... _Conradi Gesnero
interprete_ (Basel, 1544. MH)].
[22] Except for Melanchthon's translation of Book VII, c. 6, this is
not available in translation.
[23] Rodolfus Gualtherus has translated Pollux. Both the Latin and
the Greek _Onomasticon_ have been printed. The Greek _Onomasticon_
has a Latin and a very rich Greek index.
[24] This is a reference to fols. 321^a-322^b.
[25] "Cur autem illorum, qui Varia scripserunt (quibus etiam Locos
communes adnumero) potius quam illorum qui certum quodpiam argumentum
tractaverunt, capita Pandectis nostris inseruerim, haec causa est:
quoniam in uno argumento qui quaerendum sit facile intelligitur, in
variis non idem."
[26] This is evidently the anonymous _Miscellanea ex diversis
historiographis, oratoribus et poetis excerptis_ (Paris: Joannes
Gormont, 1519), which I cite from G. W. Panzer, _Annales_, VIII
(Nuremberg, 1800), 59, No. 1122, or the [1520] edition, for which see
Panzer, VIII, 69, No. 1230.
[27] He gives no precise reference, but intends the reader to turn to
fols. 192^b-194^b.
[28] This is Ludovico Ricchieri (1450-1520), _Lectionum antiquarum
libri triginta_ (Basel, 1517). There are later editions.
[29] Again he gives no precise reference. The pertinent passage is
Liber I, Titulus XVIII (fols. 32^b-34^b).
[30] I can find no reference to a publication of this book. See
Conrad Gesner, _Bibliotheca_ (ed. Josias Simler; Zurich, 1583), s.v.
"Bassiani Landi," where we read "praeterea fertur scripsisse librum
cui titulus est Epiphyllides."
[31] Hugh G. Dick calls attention to some interesting remarks on the
development of pagination as an answer to the needs of scholars in P.
S. Allen, _Erasmus Lectures and Wayfaring Sketches_ (Oxford, 1934),
pp. 32-34.
[32] He promises to give a longer list of library catalogues and
redeems his promise on fols. 29^a-29^b, where he adds a reference to
his discussion of libraries in classical antiquity in the preface to
the _Bibliotheca universalis_. Such cross-references show Gesner's
control of his materials.
[33] Fols. 22^b-23^a (misnumbered 24^a).
[34] I do not find this book by Anton Rabe or Zythogallus (1501-1553)
in the catalogues of the British Museum or the Bibliothèque
Nationale. C. G. Jöcher, _Allgemeines Gelehrtenlexikon_, I (Leipzig,
1750), cols. 2125-2126, cites "argutissima quaeque apophthegmata
ex Erasmi operae selecta," without date or place of publication.
For a reference to the edition of Magdeburg, 1534, see _Bibliotheca
Belgica_, Series 2, Vol. VIII (Ghent, n.d. [1891-1923]), p. 377. I am
indebted to Dr. Arnold Weinberger for these references.
[35] This is Thomas Palmer, Hibernicus, whose _Flores omnium pene
doctorum_ was published in several editions with varying titles in
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century.
[36] A short title for the _Pandectarum Veteris et Novi Testamenti
libri XXII_ (Strassburg, 1532). There are other editions.
[37] "De Bibliothecis, id est, catalogus scriptorum ordine
literarum; deinde etiam de locis librorum [,] custodia, insignibus,
& structoribus eorum." A literal translation of the first two words
would be "Concerning Bibliographies," or "On Bibliographies," but
this does not seem to me to be current English style and I have
preferred to give a modern idiomatic rendering here and elsewhere of
titles in foreign languages. I have also quoted the original titles.
[38] Compare such modern works as Arnim Graesel, _Grundzüge der
Bibliothekslehre_ (Leipzig, 1890 and later eds.); Svend Dahl (ed.),
_Haandbog i Bibliotekskundskab_ (Copenhagen, 1912 and later eds.);
Fritz Milkau (ed.), _Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaft_ (Leipzig,
1931-1940).
[39] For Albertus Magnus see George Sarton, _Introduction to the
History of Science_, II (Baltimore, 1937), 937 and Lynn Thorndike,
_A History of Magic and Experimental Science_, II (New York, 1923),
692-717. The _Speculum astronomiae_, which Gesner has in mind, has
also been ascribed to Roger Bacon, but this is probably an error.
[40] See an important article on sixteenth-century legal
bibliography: Wilhelm Fuchs, "Die Anfänge der juristischen
Bibliographie im 16. Jahrhundert," _Archiv für Bibliographie, Buch-
und Bibliothekswesen_, II (1929), 44-54.
[41] These are bibliographies of Latin dialogues (a favorite
Renaissance literary form for exposition and controversy),
epistolographers, bilingual and multilingual dictionaries, Greek
grammars, and Hebrew grammars.
[42] Spach knows only the editions of 1494 and 1531 and overlooks the
largest and best edition of 1546.
[43] The date should be 1557. He does not know the first or the
latest edition of this book.
[44] See above, n. 35.
[45] See "Joan. Castelli, Catal. officinae Goltzianae." For
references to Hubert Goltzius, a famous printer at Bruges in the
second half of the sixteenth century, see Adrien Baillet, _Jugemens
des savans_ (Amsterdam, 1725), V, ii, p. 66; Michael Maittaire,
_Annales typographicae_ (The Hague, 1719-1741), III, 568; H. Marcel,
"Hubert Goltzius, éditeur et imprimeur," _Annales de la Société
d'émulation pour l'étude de l'histoire de la Flandre_ (Bruges),
LXVIII (1925), 21-34. Spach also cites "Joan. Oporini, Exuviae,"
a publisher's catalogue that, like the Goltzius catalogue, often
appears in lists of bibliographies; see J. W. Spargo, "Some Reference
Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," _Papers of the
Bibliographical Society of America_, XXXI (1937), 145. Book titles in
quotation marks indicate books that I have not examined.
[46] "Stephanus, Francofurdiense emporium," which was published at
[Geneva] in 1574 and translated by James Westfall Thompson, _The
Frankfort Book Fair. The Francofordiense emporium of Henri Estienne_
(Chicago, 1911).
[47] Muzio Pansa (not Pensa), _Della libraria Vaticana_ (Rome, 1590.
ICN).
[48] _Catalogus Graecorum Codicum qui sunt in Bibl. Reip. Augustanae
Vindelicae_ (Augsburg, 1595). For a reference to it see J. M.
Francke, _Catalogus Bibliothecae Bunavianae_, I (Leipzig, 1750), i,
840. David Hoeschel compiled this catalogue, which was four times
as large as the catalogue made twenty years earlier by [Hieronymus
Wolff].
[49] Published at Vienna, but Spach gives no date. For many studies
of Lazius see Karl Schottenloher, _Bibliographie zur deutschen
Geschichte im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, 1517-1585_ (Leipzig,
1933-1940), I, 437-438 and V, 151. These do not seem to deal with the
_Catalogus_.
[50] For an excellent account of this catalogue see E. A. Savage,
"Notes on the Early Monastic Libraries of Scotland, with an account
of the Registrum Librorum Angliae and of the Catalogus scriptorum
of John Boston of Bury St Edmunds," _Publications of the Edinburgh
Bibliographical Society_, XIV (1928), 1-46.
[51] See the edition entitled "Centum dicta, sive fructus librorum
suorum" in Claudius Ptolemy, _Opera_ (Basel, 1541. MH). The British
museum, catalogue lists it as _Centiloquium_.
[52] I cannot follow further the only clue to information that I
have discovered. In J. C. Fischer (ed.), B. G. Struve, _Introductio
in notitiam rei litterariae_ (Frankfurt a.M., 1754), p. 394, where
libraries in Germany are discussed, I read "Stolpensis: Chr. August.
Freybergii Programma de Bibliotheca Stolpensi, Dresdae 1723. Eiusdem
Programmata VIII. de Scholarum praesertim Saxonicarum, hyeme, (in
quibus simul Bibliothecae Stolpensis memorabilia sistit,) Dresdae,
1726. 1738. 4-to." No doubt Freyberg mentioned Bolduan.
[53] J. F. Jugler (ed.), B. G. Strove, _Bibliotheca historiae
litterariae selecta_ (4 v.; Jena 1754-1785), I, 88.
[54] _Bibliotheca philosophica_, pp. 644-648.
[55] 2d ed.; [Oxford] and London, [1936].
[56] See pp. 56-58.