A History of Bibliographies of BibliographiesTaylor, Archer
History
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies
Taylor, Archer
Bibliography of bibliographies -- History
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account