Note 2 — Chapter I · Beginnings of the Bibliography of Bibliographies

Hermippus of Smyrna wrote on legislators, the Seven Sages, and the pupils of Isocrates. He or another Hermippus wrote a De viris illustribus, which is probably the book intended by St. Jerome. For more information about Hermippus and the other writers mentioned in this passage see Joannes Jonsius, De scriptoribus historiae philosophiae (Frankfurt a.M., 1659) and such a modern authority as Wilhelm von Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (6th ed., Munich, 1920). I recommend Jonsius because he makes clear the bibliographical aspect of these writers. There is no adequate account of classical Greek and Latin bibliographical writings.