Note 18 — WHAT IS AN INDEX?

I searched in vain for the date of the first edition of the Gradus, until I was so fortunate as to find it in the valuable article on “Dictionaries” in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Little information was to be obtained from the British Museum Catalogue, owing to the complicated arrangement of the anonymous books. I looked into the new General Catalogue under the heading Parnassus, where the book should have been entered according to the rules, and there was only one edition of the present century. I then turned to Gradus, and there was a reference to an edition by Valpy. I knew that there must be some earlier edition, so I went to the old General Catalogue and there I at once found among others an “editio novissima” (Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1687). When the book was in my hands I noticed that it was marked to be catalogued under the heading of “Dictionaries,” where I venture to think few would look for it. This experience is related here as a good illustration of the inconvenience of classification in an Alphabetical Catalogue.