philosophy, and theology, and may be regarded as one of the first attempts to apply a system of classification^ to printed books. Its interest is enhanced by its containing the price of the books advertised for sale. The increasing commerce in literature was at once a cause and a conse quence of similar catalogues ; and the example of Aldus was followed by the Stephens, and by Colines, Wechell, and Vascosan, and other French printers of the first half of the 16th century, whose lists are given in vols. ii. and iii. of Maittaire s Annales Typographici, the divisions of subjects increasing with the spread of printed literature. In England the earliest known sale-list of printed books was published by Andrew Maunsell, a London bookseller, in ] 595, and contains the titles of many works now lost or forgotten. In 1554 or 1564[1] appeared the first printed catalogue of the Frankfort book-fair, published by George Weller, a bookseller at Augsburg; and in 1604 it was followed by the general Easter catalogue, printed by per mission of the Government. These catalogues of the different book-fairs were collected together in 1592 by Cless whose researches included all books printed since 1500 and by Draudius in his Bibliotheca Classica (1611). The same has been done by Georgi in his Slicker Lexicon (1758), a catalogue of all works printed in Europe up to
1750.spread of collections; and towards the end of the 17th, and especially during the 18th century, book-catalogues of every description multiplied rapidly. Their progress is copiously treated of in Nichols s Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. pp. 608-693.[2] Most private collections, at first, appear to have been bought and sold en Hoc ; and it was through the catalogues, compiled in many instances by learned and well-qualified librarians, that a more critical and discriminat ing estimate of their contents was formed. P. Gamier in 1678 prepared an excellent catalogue of the library of the Jesuit Colle ge de Clermont at Paris, using the materials, like other bibliographers after him, for a classified system of his own. Dr Johnson and Oldys were the joint editors of the Bibliotheca Harleiana, which they prepared for Osborne the bookseller, who bought the library of the earl of Oxford ; and Maittaire drew the scheme of arrangement. The earliest catalogues of public libraries were simple inventories, disposed in alphabetical order, with, at most, a few biographical notices interspersed ; yet they paved the way, in the hands of Conrad Gesner, for the study of "pure" bibliography. The compilation of catalogues raisonnes was deferred till the 18th century, when the labours of French librarians or booksellers, such as Piget, Prosper Marchand, Martin, Barrois, Baillet, and the De Bures, created by that means a public taste for books. The greatest work of this kind was the French Bibliotheque Eoyale, begun in 1739, and finished in 10 vols. in 1753. Part i., relating to printed books, was superintended by the Abbe s Sallier and Bouclot, In a perfect catalogue raisonne alphabetical arrangement is dispensed with; every work occupies its proper place in regard to the light it throws on the subject treated, and the ground traversed by the author. " Catalogues of this sort," says Dibdin, " are to biblio graphers what reports are to lawyers;" and Maittaire terms them " proces-verbaux litte"raires, servant a decider une infinit^ de questions qui s dlevant sur la bibliologie." The consolidation of these detached catalogues was a conse quence of the increased requirements of learning, and the Bibliotheca:, or registers of particular libraries, supplied the first materials for a general dictionary of reference. Biblio graphy, thus represented, is the codex dijilomaticus of literary history, with a field of research co-extensive with the innummerable productions of the press. But a uni versal dictionary of this kind is but a dream of biblio graphers; nor would any single compiler be equal to the task. The Bibliotheca Universalis of Gesner in 1545 is the earliest and almost the only effort of this nature. His work professed to include the titles of all known books, existing or lost, but he confined himself to those in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The first volume is classed alphabetically^ according to the authors names ; the second contains a distribution of subjects, and is divided into nineteen books. Balthazar Ostern, in 1625, published a Bibliotheque Universelle, or catalogue of printed books from 1500 to 1624. A general survey of printed literature might be made to the end of the 16th century; but the idea is now wholly chimerical, since the number of books surpasses all human calculation. The Bibliotheca Britannica, or General Index of British and Foreign Literature, by Dr Watt of Glasgow, published in 1824, 4 vols., is perhaps the nearest modern exposition of Gesner s idea. All so-called general, dictionaries are, in fact, written on a selective principle of some kind, the only means, as Baron de Reiffenberg remarks, of achieving utility and completeness. Ersch, tho founder of modern bibliography in Germany, published his- Allgemeines Repei*torium der Literatur in 1793-1809; but the first really comprehensive work in that country was Ebert s Allgemeines Bibliograjihisches Lexicon, Leipsic, 1821-1830, an English translation of which was printed at Oxford in 1837, 4 vols. 8vo. Kaiser s Vollstdndiges Biicherlexicon, and Heinsius s Allgemeines Biicherlexicon r with the continuation by Schultz, are useful works of reference; but their contents, as might be expected, are far from justifying the epithet of universal. Osmont, Cailleau, and other French compilers on a large scale, limited their notices to rare and remarkable books ; and De Euro in his Bibliographic Instructive only included productions of inferior repute, because his original materials were too scanty to illustrate all the divisions of a complete system and comprise what he termed a " Corps de Bibliographie choisie." Brunei s Manuel du Libraire was the first work which embraced in alphabetical order what was most precious in the literature of all times and nations. It was first published in three volumes, 8vo, in 1810, and has since passed through several editions. It is far richer in English and German books than any of the preceding compilations, and its plan is such as to afford all the advantages both of a dictionary and a classed catalogue. As a practical work of reference, whether to the bibliographer or the student, it is the most complete dictionary yet published on a scale so comprehensive. The Bibliographie Universelle (Manuels-Pioret), Paris, 1857 contains a copious list of the leading works on the different subjects of learn ing, which are arranged in alphabetical order, and a succinct summary of the principal editions of an author s work, including the ancient classics. Among works avowedly devoted to special bibliography, some are limited to the productions of certain epochs. The first century of printing has been an attractive subject of research, as has been noticed above in the chapter on early printed books. The Bibliographic de la France was the first trustworthy com pilation of annual literature in that country. Of more immediate value for purely literary purposes are those dictionaries or catalogues which are restricted to particular branches of knowledge; and they have the advantage of being able to ensure greater fulness and accuracy, from the limited scope of their contents, than is available in a work professedly general. "Through the want of such," said Oldys, " how many authors have we who are consuming
- ↑ Le Mire (Miroeus), as quoted by Fabricius, says 1554 ; Labbe, Reimann, and Heumann, quoting from the same source, say 1564.
- ↑ See also Cailleau s Diet. Bibliographique ; Dibdin s Bibliomania, 65-193, notes; and the "Catalogue des Bibliotheques Particulieres " at the end of BiUiog. Universelle (Manuels-Roret), Paris, 1857.
