A History of Bibliographies of BibliographiesTaylor, Archer
History
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies
Taylor, Archer
Bibliography of bibliographies -- History
Teissier did not learn from Labbé's experience that titles should
be cited in the original languages. Consequently, the _Catalogus_
offers the same mixture of Latin titles translated from the
vernacular and vernacular titles as we found in the _Bibliotheca
bibliothecarum_. Probably he could not have achieved any substantial
improvement in this regard. He could not see many books that he
cited and the sources from which he took the titles usually gave
them in Latin translation. Like Labbé, he cited bibliographical
sections of non-bibliographical works.[83] He made some mistakes
and corrected some that Labbé had made.[84] His most serious fault
is his failure to verify his references. In the seventeen pages
devoted to authors whose first names begin with "H" (_Catalogus_, pp.
121-138) Teissier cited eight books with the remark "He is said to
have written--(scripsisse dicitur)." This number is much larger than
it should be. Since he usually neglects to cite his source (Labbé is
more careful in this regard), search for the title may be difficult.
He is often careless in details.[85]
Teissier did not improve his technique in the _Auctuarium_, a
supplement published in 1705. This book of 388 pages contains many
new bibliographies and substantial additions to the indexes.[86] He
has turned up some new bibliographers of classical times that had
escaped Labbé and were not included in his revision of 1686. For
example, he cites Xenocrates as the writer of a list of geometricians
and Varro as the writer of a list of poets. He has brought up to date
the list of English bibliographers by adding Henry Holland, who is
the H. H. of the _Herwologia_,[87] Richard Smith, whose library was
the subject of an early catalogue; and William Winstanley, who wrote
on English poets. He knows "Rossus Warwicensus" from John Pits's
biobibliographical dictionary of English authors, but of course
has not seen Thomas Hearne's edition, which came out a few years
later.[88] He is as neglectful as he had been in the _Catalogus_
about giving dates and places of publication and citing authorities
for titles that he has not seen and works in manuscript.
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