period of its history but two hours to spare from conducting visitors
over the building; that the Committee rather expected to be censured for
requiring any other duty from them; and that, though the Trustees
themselves thought catalogues useful and even necessary, there were
those who deemed otherwise. The Museum Library dispensed with a printed
catalogue until 1787, when one was issued in two volumes folio, the work
of three persons, two-thirds of whose time was otherwise occupied. It
would therefore be unjust as well as unbecoming to criticise its many
defects with asperity. The compilers seem to have adopted as their
principle that the cataloguer who looks beyond the title-page is lost.
They therefore enter "The London Prodigal" and "Mucedorus" under
Shakespeare with no impertinent scepticism as to the authorship;
bewilder themselves with no nice distinctions between the William Bedloe
who wrote against Mahometanism in 1615, and the William Bedloe who swore
away the lives of Roman Catholics in 1680; and achieve their crowning
glory by cataloguing the thirty-three thousand Civil War tracts at a
stroke under "Anglia" as "a large collection of pamphlets." If they had
tried to do more they would probably have done nothing. Their list,
meagre in every sense, and at the present day less interesting for what
it contains than for what it does not contain, served for twenty years,
when a beginning was made towards superseding it by the more elaborate
performance of Sir Henry Ellis and Mr. Baber. This catalogue, commenced
in 1807, was completed in 1819. The portion executed by Sir Henry Ellis
has been severely criticised. It was certainly unfortunate that _pastor
paganus_ should have been treated as the equivalent of _sacerdos
ethnicus_, and Emanuel Prince of Peace mistaken for Emanuel King of
Portugal. Its virtue, however, of portable brevity, has rendered it so
useful a substitute for its colossal successor on those not unfrequent
occasions when the wood could not be seen for the trees, that those thus
beholden to it will be little inclined to deal hardly with its notorious
errors and deficiencies.
Ellis and Baber's catalogue had scarcely been completed ere the need of
a new one began to be felt, partly on account of the magnificent
donation of the 60,000 volumes and 20,000 pamphlets of the King's
Library. Notions of classification were then in the ascendant, and in
1826 the Rev. T. Hartwell Horne, a bibliographer famed for strict method
and plodding industry, was engaged as a temporary assistant to carry
them out; together with Mr. (afterwards Sir Frederic) Madden, Mr. Tidd
Pratt, and other persons of literary ability. Seldom has an undertaking
so extensive left so little trace behind it. Mr. Horne's assistants
ascended to higher spheres, or evaporated entirely, and when called upon
in 1834 to report the progress of the previous year, he could only state
that he had personally arranged the classes of "chemical and medical
philosophy"; the latter, indeed, under twenty divisions, with such
subdivisions as "Treatises on Plethora," "Treatises on the Vis
Medicatrix Naturæ," "Use of Flagellation, Friction and Philtres." The
list may be commended to the study of those who think classification a
simple matter, or a classed catalogue serviceable otherwise than as an
index to an alphabetical one. Seven thousand pounds had been expended
upon the simple sorting of titles, a task merely preliminary to that of
printing them, which might be considered as at least nearly half done,
if only the influx of new titles could be stopped, which was impossible.
The Trustees wisely determined to throw no more good money after bad;
and the episode of classification came to an end in July 1834. Mr.
Baber, Keeper of Printed Books, had already proposed a plan for a new
printed catalogue, to be executed under the superintendence of a single
competent person, a description denoting Panizzi, then "an extra
assistant librarian." This scheme was set aside in favour of a far
inferior plan, by which the execution of the catalogue was entrusted to
four persons of very unequal degrees of capacity, virtually independent
of each other. The consequence was that the little they did required to
be done again. Panizzi became head of the Printed Book Department in
1837, and the long discussions which ensued between him and the Trustees
resulted eventually in the ninety-one famous rules which have since
formed the foundation of scientific cataloguing drawn up by him with
the assistance of Messrs. Winter Jones, Watts, Parry, and Edwards. Their
number has afforded a theme for much good-natured and ill-natured
satire; on examination, however, it will be found that a third of them
relate merely to arrangement, and that the remainder are far from
providing for all conceivable cases. It may be granted that their
complexity was incompatible with the Trustees' desire to produce a
printed catalogue at an early date, a desire in which their officer was
far from participating. The Trustees defeated their own object, partly
by allowing the catalogue to be commenced on so extensive a scale;
partly by requiring, or rather letting themselves be thought to have
required, that it should be actually printed, instead of merely ready
for press, by December 1844. This decision necessitated printing in
alphabetical succession, hence diverting much of the force which should
have been applied to compiling the catalogue, to the correction of the
press. It further condemned the work to inevitable imperfection, since
it was impossible to foresee what titles would be required to be written
under A, and such titles, excluded from the printed volume embracing
that letter, kept continually turning up during the entire progress of
the work. As the imperfections of this volume (published in 1841) became
more notorious, the demand for a printed catalogue gradually died away,
and Panizzi was left in possession of his ideal—a manuscript catalogue,
executed with a thoroughness and on a scale which seemed to render
printing for ever impossible. This, as we shall see, was destined to
break down in its turn; and the great librarian's objections to print
have met with a practical refutation. At the same time it must be
candidly acknowledged that, although Panizzi was wrong in abstract
principle, he was right as regarded the requirements of his own day. The
collection of books was at the time too limited to justify a printed
catalogue, and not too extensive to render a manuscript catalogue
inconveniently unwieldy. Panizzi's opposition to print was justifiable
under the circumstances then existing; his error was in failing to
foresee and provide for the far different state of things which he
himself was calling into existence. If, while maintaining the old order,
he had recognised and promoted the inevitable advent of the new, he
would not have left the renown of the introduction of print to a young
officer of the Manuscript Department, who, during the heat of the strife
over the question of print in 1848, was, as Sir Frederic Madden informed
the Royal Commission, "employed in seeing through the press the general
index to the Manuscript catalogues in the Reading Room. And I must say
that Mr. Bond has proved a most efficient and most praiseworthy
assistant."
Panizzi wanted a catalogue: he had framed the rules for it with
completeness and precision never imagined before his time, but he was
entirely averse to the catalogue being printed. In his report of
November 17, 1837, he declared it unreasonable to expect that the public
should spend the enormous sum that the printing of a catalogue of the
whole of such a library requires, to suit the convenience of a small
portion of the community. There was much weight in the argument, and the
propounder of it could not foresee that he would himself in the long run
overthrow it by the extraordinary development he was destined to impart
to the library, and by consequence to the catalogue. When, eight years
after the date of the report just quoted, Panizzi's persevering efforts
obtained an annual grant of £10,000 to remedy the deficiencies of the
library, he started the catalogue on a road whose inevitable goal was
print. Library and catalogue increasing _pari passu_, it became
abundantly clear that recourse must some day be had to print for the
mere sake of reducing the bulk of the latter. This consummation was
accelerated by another of Panizzi's great measures—the introduction, at
the independent and almost simultaneous suggestion of Mr. Wilson Croker
and the late Mr. Roy, of the Library, of the system of keeping up the
catalogue by slips pasted on the leaf, and therefore easily removable,
thus preventing the disturbance of alphabetical order. As this gave
three thicknesses to the leaf, and the slips were at first pasted widely
apart, and were not, moreover, transcribed with any special regard to
economy of space, the hundred and fifty volumes placed in the Reading
Room in 1850 had swollen to fifteen times that number by 1875. This
development was attended by another unforeseen consequence; it became
actually more expensive to transcribe the catalogue than to print it.
The number of transcribers employed to copy titles, of incorporators
required to assign these to their proper places, of binders' men to
perform the manual work, the incessant shifting and relaying, inserting
new leaves and dividing and rebinding old volumes, were attended by
financial results which frequently elicited communications from the
Treasury. One of these happened to arrive in 1875, shortly after the
writer of these pages had become Superintendent of the Reading Room.
Being now in a position to report upon the subject, he pointed out what
had long been exceedingly plain to him, that the space available for the
accommodation of the catalogue was all but exhausted, and that on this
ground alone it would be imperative to reduce its bulk by printing at
least a portion of it. In 1878 his representations were renewed, this
time with great encouragement from Sir Charles Newton, then acting as
Principal Librarian, but nothing decisive was done until the accession
of the late Principal Librarian, Mr. E. A. Bond, in the autumn of the
same year. Mr. Bond had long made up his mind, on literary grounds, that
the catalogue ought to be printed; and finding himself now enabled to
give effect to his views, initiated negotiations with the Treasury which
led in due course to the desired result. In 1880 print was adopted for
the entries of all future additions to the library, thus putting an
effectual curb upon the growth of the catalogue. In 1881 the printing of
the catalogue as a whole was commenced, and has since been carried on
uninterruptedly. The order of publication was not at first alphabetical,
the Treasury's support having been partly gained by the promise to deal,
in the first instance, with the overgrown volumes in various parts of
the catalogue which would otherwise have required rebinding and
relaying. This accomplished, however, publication, as had always been
Mr. Bond's intention, glided into as close an alphabetical sequence as
is consistent with the fact that different portions of the same letter
are necessarily taken up simultaneously, and that some are much more
difficult to prepare for press than others. With the adoption of print
the history of the Museum Catalogue may be said to terminate for the
present, while its actual condition will appear from the statement now
to be given of the progress hitherto made.
By the time that these pages see the light about 190 parts or volumes of
the catalogue will have been issued. Averaging the number of entries as
5000 to a volume (notwithstanding that the volumes have of late been
made thicker), it will appear that 950,000 titles have been printed, or
nearly one-third of the entire work, allowing for the constant accession
of new material during its progress, as will be explained further on.
This gives an average of about twenty-four parts annually since the
commencement of printing in 1881; but as the amount of the Treasury
grant did not admit of the publication of more than fifteen parts
annually for the first two years, the average publication at present may
be taken as thirty. Speaking generally, it may be said that the
catalogue is in type from A to the end of G, and from V to the end of
the alphabet. This is nearly a third of the whole, and at the present
rate of progress it seems reasonable to conclude that the printing may
be completed in about twelve years. It should be hardly necessary to
explain to the reader who may be familiar with the appearance of the
catalogue in the Reading Room, that the ponderous folio he is accustomed
to there presents little resemblance to the parts as issued to
subscribers. Special copies of the latter, printed on one side of the
paper only, are laid down for Reading Room use on considerably larger
sheets of the strongest and toughest vellum paper procurable, and thus
the quartos are converted into folios. The printed strip when pasted
down occupies only the left side of the leaf, the blank portion
opposite, as well as that above and below, being reserved for the
additions continually accruing from the titles of new books received
after the printing of the volume,[96:1] which is further supplied with
guards to allow of interleaving. It has been computed that each volume
would contain 9000 titles, after which it must be divided, and that the
Reading Room will accommodate 2000 volumes, providing room for eighteen
millions of titles, or, at the present rate of cataloguing, for the
accumulation of three centuries to come. In 1880, just before the
introduction of printing, there was not room to place another volume. A
column of the type used in printing the catalogue weighs ten pounds, so
that supposing the work, when through the press, to consist of 600
volumes averaging 250 columns each, a million and a half pounds' weight
of type will have been employed.
From the preparation of the catalogue for strictly Museum purposes, we
pass to the arrangements for its issue to the public. Here we are
confronted by two very remarkable facts—one as gratifying as the other
is the reverse. For the _original subscribers_ the Museum Catalogue is
one of the cheapest books in the world. At its commencement it was not
expected that more than fifteen parts could be issued annually, and the
annual subscription was fixed at three pounds. In fact, however, the
rate of publication has for some years past averaged thirty parts, while
the terms of subscription remain unaltered. The subscription is,
therefore, virtually reduced by one-half, and the cost of each part,
with its 250 columns and 5000 titles, is just two shillings. It may be
doubted whether equal liberality has ever been shown by any public
institution. The case, however, of the subscribers of the future is far
otherwise, or rather say would be, if such subscribers could exist.
Nobody will take an imperfect catalogue, and the sum required for the
parts already printed is an almost insuperable obstacle in the way of
new subscribers, and an effectual bar to the further dissemination of
the catalogue, except by donation. It would be well worth while to
offer the parts already printed as a bonus, at a nominal or greatly
reduced price. Unfortunately, however, the number of copies printed
during the first year was comparatively limited, and the impression, as
regards these, would be exhausted almost immediately. The difficulty
would disappear if the Museum possessed that indispensable auxiliary to
its progress, a photographic department, in which the photographer's
salary and the cost of chemicals should be paid by the State; thus
allowing photographic work to be done gratuitously for the institution,
and at a merely nominal rate for the public. In this case the deficient
volumes would be supplied without any expense whatever, and the offer of
the perfected sets to the public at a nominal cost would probably ensure
sufficient subscribers for the remainder of the work. Until this great
step towards the popular dissemination of the Museum's treasures in all
departments has been taken, it will be necessary to reprint the earlier
volumes of the catalogue; and the £1500 required for this purpose might
probably be obtained from subscribers on condition of the other back
volumes being thrown in as a bonus at a greatly reduced price. The
longer the operation is delayed the more costly will it be for the
Museum, which runs the risk of eventually finding itself with a hundred
sets, mostly imperfect, on its hands, of which it will be impossible to
get rid otherwise than by donation. A subscription once commenced is not
likely to drop, as the value of a set of the catalogue depends upon its
completeness.
It will now be naturally inquired, at what period may the completion of
the catalogue be looked for? The answer will be, about the end of the
century, if the Treasury grant is maintained at its present figure. The
amount expended in printing, inclusive of that incurred for printing the
titles of books added to the library, is about £3000 annually. Two years
ago the grant for purchases throughout every department of the
institution was reduced by two-fifths, and only half the amount has as
yet been restored. If a similar mistaken spirit of economy had affected
the grant for printing, the completion of the catalogue must have been
proportionately delayed. Any expectation, therefore, which may be held
out of the accomplishment of the work by the end of the century, or any
other date, must be understood to be entirely subject to the action of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has it in his power to retard
progress indefinitely, or interrupt it altogether. It must be
acknowledged that the behaviour of the Treasury towards this department
of the Museum service has hitherto been very liberal; and that the grant
for printing is as large as, with the numerous other demands upon the
library staff, can be employed to advantage. The preparation of copy for
the press, and its subsequent correction and revision, occupy the entire
time of several of the best assistants; and, were absolute
bibliographical accuracy aimed at, would require that of several more.
This cannot be had, and all pretension to minute accuracy has invariably
been disclaimed. It has been felt all along that a number of trifling
errors are preferable to the huge and unpardonable error of not
accomplishing the work at all. From what has been said, it will be
apparent that the publication of this catalogue is carried on under very
different conditions from those habitual in similar undertakings. Three
thousand pounds a year must be spent upon it; or, as regards Museum
purposes, must be thrown away. Any balance unexpended at the end of the
financial year must revert to the Treasury, and would be an
uncompensated loss as regards the Museum. This misfortune has hitherto
been avoided—partly by an energy and diligence on the part of the
gentlemen employed, of which it is impossible to speak too warmly or too
gratefully—partly by a resolute determination not to aim at an ideal
perfection, which, under the circumstances, would be absolutely
mischievous.