* * * * *
ENGELMANNS BIBLIOTHECA SCRIPTORUM CLASSICORUM.
(Vol. ii., p. 296.)
The shortest reply to MR. DE MORGAN'S complaint against a foreign
bookseller would be, that _Engelmann himself_ printed for any of the
purchasers of a large number of his Catalogues the titles to which MR.
DE MORGAN objects so much.
Will you allow me to add one or two remarks occasioned by MR. DE
MORGAN'S strictures?
1. Engelmann is not, strictly speaking, a bookseller, and his catalogues
are not booksellers' catalogues in the sense in which that term is
generally received here. He is a publisher and compiler (and an
admirable one) of general classified catalogues for the use of the trade
and of students, without any reference to his stock, or, in many
instances, to the possibility of easily acquiring copies of the books
enumerated: and although he _might_ execute an order from his
catalogues, getting orders is _not_ the end for which _he_ publishes
them.
2. Some foreign houses in London, as well as in other countries, bought
a large number of his Catalogues, not as a _book_ but as a _catalogue_,
to be supplied to their customers at the bare cost, or, where it appears
advisable, to be delivered gratis to purchasers of a certain amount.
3. It appears to me pardonable if, under these circumstances, a notice
is inserted on the title, that orders may be directed to the house which
has purchased a number, and supplies them without any immediate profit;
and I may add that I do {313} not believe any of the houses concerned
would object to a notice being taken of such a proceeding in your paper.
4. The error in omitting the words "from 1700" on the title-page, is one
to which MR. DE MORGAN'S notice first directed my attention, classics
printed before that date not being commonly in demand among foreign
booksellers.
5. The practice of compiling catalogues for general use, with the names
of the purchasers of any number of copies of the catalogue inserted on
the title or wrapper, is very common in Germany.