In giving an account of a fifteenth century book, a reference should always be made to Hain’s _Repertorium Bibliographicum_. If Hain gives a full description, and such description is correct, it will be sufficient for all purposes to quote the number in Hain. Almost all the books fully described in that work have an asterisk prefixed to their number, that being the sign that Hain had himself collated the book; and in quoting from him the asterisk should never be omitted. The title and colophon should always be given in extenso, the end of each line in the original being marked by an upright stroke (|). The abbreviations should be exactly copied. Notice must always be taken of blank leaves which are part of the book. The number of lines to the page, the presence or absence of signatures, all such technical minutiæ must be noted down. In fact, the object of a good bibliographical description is to give as clearly and concisely as possible all the information which can be derived from an examination of the book itself. The individual history of a book is of the utmost importance, and should never be ignored. On this subject I cannot do better than quote some words of Henry Bradshaw, applicable more to manuscripts than to printed books, but which explain the writer’s careful method, and practically exhaust all that has to be said on the subject. “These notes, moreover, illustrate the method on which I have worked for many years, the method which alone brings me satisfaction, whether dealing with printed books or manuscripts. It is briefly this: to work out the history of the volume from the present to the past; to peel off, as it were, every accretion, piece by piece, entry by entry, making each contribute its share of evidence of the book’s history backwards from generation to generation; to take note of every entry which shows either use, or ownership, or even the various changes of library arrangement, until we get back to the book itself as it left the original scriptorium or the hands of the scribe; noting how the book is made up, whether in 4-sheet, 5-sheet, or 6-sheet quires, or otherwise; how the quires are numbered and marked for the binder; how the corrector has done his work, leaving his certificate on the quire, leaf or page, or not, as the case may be; how the rubricator has performed his part; what kind of handwriting the scribe uses; and, finally, to what country or district all these pieces of evidence point.... The quiet building up of facts, the habit of patiently watching a book, and listening while it tells you its own story, must tend to produce a solid groundwork of knowledge, which alone leads to that sober confidence before which both negative assumption and ungrounded speculation, however brilliant, must ultimately fall.” INDEX OF PRINTERS AND PLACES. Abbeville, 90, 91. Abingdon, 182, 183. Alban’s, St., 140. Albi, 71, 90. Aldus, 69, 70. Alopa, F. de, 75. Alost, 97, 101, 102, 103, 104.