IRecorfc of :Biblfo0rapbs an& OLibrars OLfterature, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London; 1554-1640 A. D. Volume V., Index. . . Edited by Edward Arber, F.S.A. . . Privately printed, Birmingham, i5th March, 1894, 4 to -> PP- cxi -> 2 77- This long-expected index volume to Mr. Arber's Transcript contains, besides his introduction : (i) a reprint, brought up to date, of the interest- ing paper by Mr. C. R. Rivington, on "The Records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers," originally read before a meeting of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society in 1881 ; (2) "a list of London Publishers, 1553-1640," the trial issue of which we reviewed on its first appearance ; (3) a Bibliographical Summary of English Literature, 1555-1603 ; (4) An index of the Mechanical Producers of English Books, 1553-1640. We regret to find that it does not include that index to the titles of the books registered for which all students of i6th and 1 7th century literature have so long been waiting, and which it is to be feared they will now never obtain. At the risk of appearing ungrateful to the laborious editor, it seems a reviewer's duty to note that the language with which Mr. Arber closes his introduction is hardly warranted by the facts. He begins by remarking that as Milton promised his great poem twenty-five years before it appeared, and Prof. Froude devoted twenty years to the production of his History of England, some such period seems to be the " usual amount of one's earthly existence that must be offered up in the preparation of anything that is to last through the ages to come." Having devoted this period of his earthly existence to the task which he now regards as completed, Prof. Arber remarks that : "In parting we can most truly say, that no earthly consideration of money, ease or fame, has been allowed for an instant, to diminish or slacken the consecrated earnestness and thoroughness of this second attempt towards the ultimate Bibliography of this period. It has been, from first to last, a perfectly disinterested endeavour for the advance- ment of learning in this particular field of human knowledge." On a previous page Prof. Arber has written in a more business-like if less eloquent strain. He has been acknowledging the gift of various special bibliographies by Mr. Jenkinson, Mr. Madan and others, and continues : " While, however, fully appreciating the most valuable researches embodied in these lists, it was not in my power to avail myself of them. For it was imperative, in order to keep the expense within any reason- able limit, that not more than four pages should be allotted to each year of the Bibliographical Summary. At first, when the literature was scanty, this was ample space for all the books that could be found ; but by the time the University Presses began to work, in 1584 and 1585, the production of books in London alone had increased so much that the four pages allotted to each year was insufficient to record them. So not only were some London books thrown out, but also all other books printed in the British Isles, together with all anonymous and continental books relating to England. The fact is, that a complete national English Bibliography is beyond the financial power of any private individual, or any business firm, or even any literary society. It can only be accomplished by the State." Now we have no intention of hinting that Prof. Arber has not given his subscribers good value for the six thousand guineas, more or less, which the subscription list prefixed to this volume shows that he has received
