We have come finally to the last bibliography of all. Its date (1901) entitles it to the first place in this chapter, but it stands last because it is an even more specialized compilation than a bibliography of bibliographies. This bibliography of bibliographies of bibliographies, that is to say, a bibliography in the third degree, is entitled _Bibliographies of Bibliographies_. The author is Aksel G. S. Josephson, a former member of the staff of the John Crerar Library. It is a chronological list of one hundred and fifty-six bibliographies of bibliographies. The conception is not new, but this pamphlet is the first separate publication of such a list. Similar lists are found of course in Peignot's _Répertoire_ of 1812, Petzholdt's _Bibliotheca bibliographica_ of 1866, and a great variety of other reference works. The pertinent sections in handbooks of library science, bibliography, and the like are usually of little interest or value, but Josephson lists them carefully. Perhaps forty titles that he names are significant. He has chosen the strange plan of a chronological arrangement of titles and adds to its inconvenience by providing neither an author nor a subject index. He has yielded to the temptation to include titles of no pertinence like treatises on systems of cataloguing (Nos. 41, 43),[209] H. B. Wheatley's _What Is an Index?_ (No. 59), a guide for making a pastor's library (No. 77), a list of fictitious books (No. 80), and guides to the use of a library (Nos. 67, 69, 104). The many references to bibliographies in the _Neuer Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekswesen_ are no doubt pertinent but are scarcely as important as they are numerous. He has probably more references to bibliographical lists published in journals of library science than any other source of information.[210] The value of Josephson's pamphlet lies in an arrangement that makes apparent the historical development and emphasizes the growth of bibliographical lists in journals. Mistakes seem to be few.[211] In making a second edition of the _Bibliography of Bibliographies_ Josephson profited greatly from the long criticism by Vilhelm Grundtvig that we have already discussed. He replaced the chronological arrangement by a classified arrangement, within which he arranged titles chronologically. He added many new titles that he had found or had excerpted from Grundtvig's criticism. His retirement from active duty and long delays in publication greatly handicapped him in producing a satisfactory piece of work. FOOTNOTES: [182] Vorstius rightly believed in 1948 that the _Index bibliographicus_ was entirely out of date; see his _Ergebnisse und Fortschritte der Bibliographie in Deutschland seit dem ersten Weltkrieg, Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen_, Beiheft 74 (Leipzig, 1948), p. 36. Besterman's third edition goes far to meet Vorstius's objections.