Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue, Part II, Third Edition

Part 2 — STYLE. (continued 2)

Reading edition

257. When there are many cross-references classify them.

Ex. Architecture. See also Arches;—Baths;—Bridges;—Cathedrals;—Fonts;—[and many other things built];

also Carpentry;—Drawing;—Metal-work;—Painting;—[and many other means or methods of building];

also Athens;—Berlin;—Boston;—Milan;—Rome;—Venice;—Verona;—[and many other cities whose buildings are described];

also Arabia;—Assyria;—Egypt;—France;—Greece;—India;—Italy;—[and many other countries whose architecture is described].

258. When the titles are numerous under a subject-heading divide them, but avoid subdivision.

It may not be best to adopt strictly the same method in the subdivisions under countries that was recommended for government publications. There are advantages in both the following plans. The second is the dictionary plan pure and simple; the first is a bit of classification introduced for special reasons into a dictionary catalogue, and perhaps out of place there. It is, however, the one which I have adopted for the catalogue of the Boston Athenæum.

[(1.) Dictionary Catalogue with a Bit of Classification] [Name of country.] Administration. Agriculture. Antiquities. Architecture. Army. Art. Biography. Botany. Calendar. Ceremonies. Charities. Climate. Colonies. Commerce and Trade. Costume. Description and Travels. Ecclesiastical history. Education. Entomology. Finance. Folk-lore. Foreign relations. Geology. Heraldry. Herpetology. History. Bibliography. General works. Chronological arrangement. Ichthyology. Industry. Language. Bibliography. General and miscellaneous works. Composition. Conversation and Phrases. Correspondence. Dialects. Dictionaries. Epithets. Etymology. Exercises. Grammar. Historical grammars. History. Homonyms. Pronunciation and spelling. Prosody. Readers (for foreign languages). Rhymes. Synonyms. Law. Bibliography. History. General works. Literature. General Bibliography. History (including lives of authors). Collections. Manuals. Selections for reading and speaking. Ballads and songs. Dialogues. Drama. Eloquence or oratory. Epigrams. Epitaphs. Essays. Fables. Fairy tales. Fiction. Legends. Letters. Parodies. Periodicals. Poetical romances. Poetry. Popular literature. [68] Prose romances. [69] Satire. Sonnets. Wit and humor. Malacology. Manufactures. Medicine. Mineralogy. Money. Music. Names. Natural history. Navy. Naval history. Numismatics. Ornithology. Palæontology. Philosophy. Politics. Population. Public works. Registers. Religion. Sanitary affairs. Science. Social distinctions. Social life, Manners and customs. Social science. Statistics. Technology. Theatre. Theology. Zoölogy. Etc.

[(2.) Dictionary Catalogue Pure and Simple] [Name of country.] Administration. Agriculture. Antiquities. Architecture. Army. Art. Ballads and songs. Bibliography. Botany. Calendar. Ceremonies. Charities. Climate. Colonies. Commerce. Composition. Conversation and Phrases. Correspondence. Costume. Description and Travels. Dialects. Dialogues. Dictionaries. Drama. Ecclesiastical history. Education. Eloquence or oratory. Entomology. Etymology. Epigrams. Epitaphs. Epithets. Exercises. Fables. Fairy tales. Fiction. Finance. Foreign relations. Geology. Grammar. Heraldry. Herpetology. History. Bibliography. General works. Chronological arrangement. Homonyms. Ichthyology. Language. Bibliography. History. General and miscellaneous works. Law. Bibliography. History. General and miscellaneous works. Legends. Letters. Literature. Bibliography. History. General and miscellaneous works. Collections. Malacology. Manufactures. Medicine. Mineralogy. Money. Music. Names. Natural history. Navy. Naval history. Numismatics. Ornithology. Palæontology. Parodies. Periodicals. Philosophy. Poetical romances. Poetry. Politics. Popular literature. [68] Population. Pronunciation. Prose romances. [69] Prosody. Public works. Registers. Religion. Rhymes. Sanitary affairs. Satire. Science. Social distinctions. Social life, Manners and customs. Social science. Sonnets. Spelling. Statistics. Synonyms. Technology. Theatre. Theology. Wit and humor. Zoölogy. Etc.

Note, however, that if the subordination under Language and Literature is objected to, it is very easy to make them independent headings in the main alphabet, having

instead of Italy. Description. History. Language. Literature. Natural history.

the headings Italian language. Italian literature. Italy. Description. History. Natural history.

Of course different countries will require different divisions, e. g., Ecclesiastical history, Mythology, Religion, Theology will not often be required for the same {97} country. And often it will be expedient to combine those divisions in which there are very few titles into one more general; thus Botany, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Zoölogy, would join to give Natural history a respectable size, and Geology, Mineralogy, Palæontology, Physical geography would combine, or in very small countries all these would go together under Description. Under some countries other divisions will be required; in the list are given only those in actual use; but the arrangement is elastic and admits of new divisions whenever they are needed. In regard to a few (such as Epitaphs, Fables, Names, Proverbs) there is room for doubt whether they ought to be under countries; whether the subject cohesion is not much stronger than the national cohesion. Many others are not usually put here (as Numismatics, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Theology, Zoölogy). The former usage was to put under the country only its history, travels in it, and the general descriptive works; and books that treated of the Art, Architecture, Ballads, Botany, Drama, etc., of that land were put with the general works on Art, Architecture, etc. But the tendency of the dictionary catalogue is towards national classification; that is, in separating what relates to the parts of a subject, as is required by its specific principle, it necessarily brings together all that relates to a country in every aspect, as it would what relates to any other individual.

It may be asked (1) why the parts of Natural history are here separated and the parts of Language and Literature not; and (2) why we do not divide still more (following out the dictionary plan fully), so as to have divisions like Liliaceæ, Cows, Horses. As to (2), in a library catalogue of a million volumes it would no doubt be best to adopt rigidly this specific mode of entry for the larger countries; for a catalogue of one or two hundred thousand, arrangement in classes is as well suited to quick reference and avoids the loss of room occasioned by numerous headings. With few books minute division has a very incomplete appearance, specialties occurring only here and there, and most of the titles being those of general works. This may be compared to the division of a library into alcoves. One of from 10,000 to 20,000 volumes has an alcove for Natural History; from 20,000 to 50,000 it has alcoves for Botany and for Zoölogy; from 50,000 to 100,000 it has alcoves for Birds, Fishes, Insects, Mammals, Reptiles, but it must be either very large or very special before it allows to smaller divisions of Zoölogy separate apartments. On an expansive system it is easy to make new alcoves as they are wanted; a similar multiplication by fission is possible in the successively enlarging editions of a printed catalogue. A card catalogue, designed for continuous growth, should have more thorough division than can be put into print, because it must look into the future, while the printed catalogue has no future.

As to (1) I can only say that the divisions of Language seem to me too intimately connected to be dispersed in catalogues of the present size, but that those of Literature have a more substantive existence and ought to be separated sooner. A double subdivision, however, ought to be avoided. Under Language there should be only one alphabet. It is better to arrange

Greece. Language. Accents. Dictionaries. Ellipses. Etymology. Grammar. History. Particles. Pleonasms. Pronunciation. Syntax.

than

Dictionaries.

Etymology.

Grammar. Accents. Ellipses. Particles. Pleonasms. Pronunciation. Syntax.

History.

Any subdivision of the groups under countries has been strongly opposed as being troublesome to make, useless, and even confusing, or as being an unlawful mixture of classed and dictionary cataloguing. But suppose you have four or five hundred {98} titles under France. History. Will you break them up into groups with such headings as House of Bourbon, Revolution, Empire, Restoration, etc., with references and other devices for those works which treat of several periods, all of which it must be confessed is a little formidable at first glance, or will you leave them in one undivided mass, so that he who wants to find the history of the last half of the 15th century must read through the 500 titles, perhaps, to find even one and certainly to find all? You would divide of course. It is true that grouping may mislead. The inquirer must still be careful to look in several places. The history of France during the ascendency of the House of Valois is to be found not merely under that heading but in the comprehensive histories of the country. The inquirer may be a little less likely to think of this because the titles of these two groups are separated from the many other titles which have nothing to do specially or generally with the House of Valois, but if he does think of it he is greatly assisted by such segregation.

K. Etc.

259. In a supplement, catalogue the whole of a continued set, not merely the volumes received since the first catalogue.

Ex. If v. 1–4 are in the catalogue and v. 5–10 are received later, enter all 10 v. in the supplement. It takes no more room, and it is useless to make the reader look in two places to ascertain how much of the work the library has. But this should not be done when it will take up much space, as would often be the case with periodicals, owing to details of change of name, number of volumes missing, etc. Nor should Contents be repeated; it is enough to refer.

260. When there are many editions of a work under any subject-heading omit the titles and merely refer to the author-entry.

Much space may thus be saved at little inconvenience to the reader.

Ex. Gaul. CÆSAR, C. J. Commentarii [B.C. 58–49]. See Cæsar, C. J. (pp. 441, 442); here two lines do the work of forty.

261. Rare books.

American libraries and especially town libraries seldom have any books sufficiently rare to deserve great particularity of description. If for any reason it is thought necessary to give a minute account of a book or of a collection good models may be found in Trömel’s Biblioth. amér., Lpz., 1861, 8º, Stevens’s Historical nuggets, Lond., 1862, 2 v. 16º, Weller’s Repertorium bibliographicum, Nördlingen, 1864, 8º, Harrisse’s Biblioth. Amer. vetustissima, N. Y., 1866, 8º, Tiele’s Mém. bibliog. sur les journaux des navig. néerlandaises, Amst., 1867, 8º, and the titles of the rarer books in Sabin’s Dict. of books rel. to America, N. Y., 1868, etc. For the convenience of those who have not these works at hand a few examples are given here.

This copy has the leaves numbered in ms. and a Tabula prefixed to the 2d part by a contemporary hand. The work being very thick was probably in general bound in two parts and is rarely complete; Santander describes only the 1st part, the due de la Vallière had only the 2d. The name of the printer, Zell, is found in only three or four of his numerous publications. This is shown to be his by the type, which is the same as that used in the Sermones of R. Caracciolus de Litio issued in the same year. The present work went through 10 editions in 8 years. According to Graesse it is {99} probably the first book printed out of Italy which contains a line of Italian poetry, “Trenta foglie ha la rosa”, at the end of the 1st part.

Brunet v. 1022, Graesse vi. ii. 232, Hain no. 16128.

(47) pp. means 47 unnumbered pages, ll. means leaves. Italicizing the um in Registrum signifies that those letters are expressed in the caption by a contraction which the printer of the catalogue has no type for.

Huon de Bordeaux. Les gestes et faictz | merueilleux du no|ble Huon de Bor|deaulx Per de France, Duc de Guyenne. Nouuellement redige en bon | Francoys: et Imprime nouuellement a Paris pour Jean Bonfonds | . . . | . . . | [Woodcut] [Ending] Lequel liure & | hystoire a este mis de rime en prose | . . . | . . . | . . . | . . . | . . . lequel fut fait & parfait le vinte | neufiesme iour de Januier. Lan | mil. cccc. liiii | . . . | . . . | . . . | . . . | . . . Imprime a Paris pour Jan | Bonfons . . . | . . . n. d. 4º. (8), 264 ll. @ 40 lines. With 14 woodcuts in the text, and the printer’s mark.

On the eighth leaf is written “Jehan Moynard me possidet 1557,” which is probably not far from the date of publication. The 1st dated edition appeared in 1516. Brunet mentions two other editions before recording the present, one 1556, one undated.

Sold, Essling 95 fr., Giraud 199 fr.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Not meaning novels, but broadsides, chap-books, and the like,—the literature of the people in times past.Note 2 · Again not meaning novels, but the romances of chivalry, etc.