A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies — John Shaqi
A History of Bibliographies of BibliographiesTaylor, Archer
History
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies
Taylor, Archer
Bibliography of bibliographies -- History
Labbé's classification of books entitled _bibliotheca_ shows
a remarkable understanding of their different kinds and calls
attention to their remarkable variety. I cannot easily cite an
equally instructive and suggestive review of bibliographies.[94]
Labbé's classification is as follows: (1) _Bibliothecae_ named for
places (_vel a locis dictae_): Augustana,[95] Floriacensis,[96]
Ingolstadiensis,[97] etc.: (2) _bibliothecae_ named for persons
(_vel a personis_): Borromaea,[98] Bodleiana,[99] Thuana,[100]
etc.; (3) _bibliothecae_ named for rulers (_vel a principibus_):
Regia Gallica,[101] Caesarea,[102] Bavarica,[103] etc.; (4)
_bibliothecae_ named for religious orders (_vel a Ordinibus Sacris_):
Augustiniana,[104] Carmelitica,[105] etc.; (5) _bibliothecae_ named
according to the subjects with which they deal (_vel a materia
quam tractant_): Chymica,[106] Concionatoria,[107] Juridica,[108]
etc.; (6) _bibliothecae_ named according to their arrangement or
like circumstances (_vel a forma similibusve circumstantiis_):
Classica,[109] Selecta,[110] Universalis.[111]
The anonymous author of _The Newly Opened Library (Die neu-eröffnete
Bibliothec), in which good information about libraries as well
as convenient directions for acquiring, maintaining, and using
them are put into the hands of students and inquiring friends. To
which are added: the chief European libraries and what travelers
ought to notice in visits to them_ (1702) hit upon the same idea
of listing _bibliothecae_.[112] In this book a special section
or appendix labelled "A List of Authors Who Have Written Books
Entitled 'Bibliotheca' and Books about Libraries (Series Authorum
qui Bibliothecas & de Bibliothecis scripserunt)" names books
called _bibliotheca_, catalogues of libraries, and treatises on
library science. The selection is obviously even more definitely
bibliographical in character than Labbé's list had been. The compiler
arranges the titles alphabetically according to the author's last
names or, in the case of an anonymous work, according to an important
word in the title. This arrangement and the choice of titles show
that he had no knowledge of Labbé. Like Labbé, he includes none of
the collections of texts that were entitled _bibliotheca_.
Our author begins with Valerius Andreas, _Bibliotheca Belgica_
(1643), a biobibliographical dictionary of writers in the Low
Countries. In the letter "A" he includes the _Augustanae Bibliothecae
Catalogus_ (1633), which he also enters under the name of the
compiler, Elias Ehinger, librarian at Augsburg. He cites the
_Bibliothèque universelle_, a critical journal edited by Jean
Leclerc, because the title contains the word _Bibliothèque_. Such
titles show that he was thinking in bibliographical terms, for
Andreas's book and the Augsburg catalogue are bibliographies and
Leclerc's journal was a review of current publications.
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