Early Printed BooksDuff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
History
Early Printed Books
Duff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents
The catalogue slips can then be arranged under towns and printers, so
that any one wishing to study the productions of a particular town or
printer can at once obtain all the books of the particular class in the
library. If he knows his books by the author’s name, they can be found
from the general catalogue of the library. In private collections, the
number of books is, as a rule, so small that they can be arranged in
any order without trouble.
In describing an early printed book, great care should always be taken
not to confuse what is common to all examples of the book with what is
specially the peculiarity of an individual copy. The description should
always be in two parts, the first general and the second particular.
The first part should give the place, the date, the name of the
printer, the size, an exact collation; the second, an account of the
binding, a list of the earlier owners, the imperfections, if any, and
similar information.
As regards the place, there does not yet seem to be any fixed rule
as to the form in which it should be written, whether in Latin or
in English. Many of the older bibliographies having been written in
Latin, and the colophons of the majority of early books being in
the same language, we have grown familiar with the Latin forms of
many names. But now that more books are being written in English, it
seems more sensible to use the English forms. The pedantic habit of
writing the name in the vernacular, as Köln for Cologne, Genève for
Geneva, or Kjøbenhavn for Copenhagen, should be avoided; it simply
tends to confuse, and serves no useful purpose. The great aim of a
bibliographical description should be to give the fullest information
in the most concise and clear form. Since English books are presumably
written for English readers, it is best they should be written in
English, and the exhibition of superfluous learning in the manner is
almost always a sign of a want of necessary learning in the matter.
The date should always be given in Arabic figures; and if there is
any peculiarity in the form of the date as it occurs in the book, it
should be added between brackets. The day of the month, when it is
given in the colophon, should always be put down in the description,
as it is often of great importance. In countries where the new year
began in March we are apt to get confused with the dates, and forget,
for example, that the 20th of January 1490 is later than the 20th of
December 1490.
The beginning of the year varied in different countries, and often in
different towns. The four most usual times for its commencement were:
Christmas Day (December 25), the day of the Circumcision (January 1),
the day of the Conception (March 25), and the day of the Resurrection
(Easter Day). The 25th of March was, on the whole, most common; but in
dating any book exactly, the rule for the particular town where it was
printed should be ascertained.
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