Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/679

Rh their time, their quiet, and their vits, in searching for either what is past finding, or already found.&quot; A catalogue, in short, might be made of superfluous writings by authors who have dug in mines of literature already exhausted. The tendency, however, of modern bibliography is fortunately to subdivide the field of literature; and the student of any special department of learning need be at no loss for authorities to consult. Bale s Illustrium Majoris Britannice ScriptorumSummarium(I4:58), John Pits s De Academids ft Illustribus Anglian Scriptoribus (1619), Bishop Tanner s Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1748), and Nicolson s Historical Libraries, 4to, 1776, are the earliest catalogues, on a large scale, of our national literature. A list of Saxon writers, by Wanley, forms the second volume of Hickes s Thesaurus. A Critical Dictionary of English Literatiire and British and American Authors, by S. A. Allibone, 3 vols., 1859-1872, is an industrious work. The Biblio grapher s Manual of English Literature, by W. T. Lowndes,. is indispensable to the collector ; and for a first attempt of the kind, displays a singular degree of accuracy and research. His British Librarian, or Boole Collector s Guide, 1839, purported to give a classed catalogue of books on English literature printed in Great Britain ; he lived, however, to complete only six numbers of the division Religion and its History. Dr Adam Clarke s Bibliographical Dictionary, 6 vols. 1803, is restricted to works in the learned and Eastern languages ; his Bibliographical Miscellany, published in 1806 as a supplement, contains, among other matter, a full account of the English transla tions of the classics. To foreign literature belong, among others, Que rard s La France Litteraire, and the Bibliotheque Historique of Le Long ; the Bibliotheca Belgica of J. F. Foppens, 2 vols., 1739; Bibliotheca Hispana, Nova t Vctus, by Nicholas Antonio, 1783-88; Haym s Biblioteca Italiana ; Worm s Danske, Norske, og Islandske Losrde Lexicon, 1771-84; Nyerup and Kraft s Almindeligt Litteratur Lexicon, 2 vols., 1820 ; Georgi s Allgemeines Europaisches Biicher-Lexicon, 1742-58; and others which space forbids us to enumerate. The works devoted to special branches of knowledge form a host in themselves, and we can only mention a few of them, by way of illustration. To theology belong such works as Le Long s Bibliotheca Sacra, 1723, and the Bibliotheca Theologia Selecta, by Walchius, 1757, as well as his Bibliotheca Patristica, new edition, 1834. Judaic literature is represented by Fiirst, and Hebrew writers by Wolfius, 1715-33. Lipenius, a learned German divine of the 17th century, devoted separate Bibliothecce to theology, law, philosophy, and medicine, which were collected in his Bibliotheca Reali-s. His Bibliotheca Juridica has received several supplements by other writers, and is much the most valuable of his series. Bridgman s Legal Bibliography, and the valuable work of M. Camus, Lettres sur la profession d Avocat et Bibliotheque choisie des Livres de Droit, deserve especial notice. The Bibliotheca Historica of Meusel relates to historical works of all ages and nations. An excellent catalogue of books of voyages and travel is given in the Bibliotheque Universelle des Voyages, by M. Boucher de la Richarderie, 6 vols., Paris, 1808. Dr Young s Cata logue of Works relating to Natural Philosophy, the Cata- logus Bibliothecce Historice Naturalis Josephi Banks, by Dr Dryander, and Engelmann s Bibliotheca Historico- tiaturalis, Leipsic, 1846 (supplement, 1861); the Biblio theca Mathematica of Murhard, Lalande s Bibliographie Astronomique, and the Bibliographic Agronomique, are leading works, written on the same principle of selection. British Topography was treated by Gough in 1780, and by Upcott in 1818. Nisard s Histoire des Livres populaires, ou de la Litteratur e du Colportage, 1854, a curious and amusing work, may also be mentioned. (Ettinger s Biblio graphic Biographique contains a copious catalogue of purely biographical works. For a comprehensive work of reference on special biographies we cannot do better than refer our readers to the Bibliotheca Bibliographica, by Dr Julius Petzholdt Leipsic, 1866. Part i. relates to works on bibliography; part ii. to the bibliography of different nations ; and part iii. to works connected with special branches of learning, which are classified into leading divisions. The Repertoire Bibliographique Universel of M. Peignot is a useful but ill- arranged work; it dates back, moreover, to 1812. The progress of knowledge and research, especially with regard to scientific subjects, obviously throws works of this descrip tion soon out of date to the student, who desires to be acquainted with the most recent as well as the earlier authorities. As landmarks, however, of the state of knowledge at different epochs, they are full of interest to the literary bibliographer.

VIII. On the Classification of Books.

The different methods, adopted from time to time, of classing books according to their subject matter, has occasioned a variety of so-called systems of bibliography, which it is important to notice, but which space forbids us to describe in detail. A distinction must be observed between a scheme of arrangement applied to a particular library, and limited therefore by its contents, and one which embraces in its divisions and subdivisions the entire range of literature. Nothing, on either head, is learnt from the Greeks and Romans ; the classed catalogue of the library of St Emmeran at Ratisbon, compiled in 1347, and con taining twelve divisions, is cited as the earliest specimen of its kind. (See .) The most ancient system, in the wider sense of the term, is ascribed to the Chinese, who in the 13th century distributed the field of human knowledge into classes numbering from fourteen to twenty, with sectional subdivisions to each. Classified systems suggested by or devised for particular libraries after printing had multiplied their contents, originated chiefly with librarians or compilers of catalogues. In 1587 Jean Baptiste Cardona wrote four treatises on the principal libraries of his day. His description of the library of the Escorial was followed in 1635 by Arias Montanus, whose catalogue divided the books there according to languages, separating MSS. from printed works, and distributed the whole into sixty-four classes. Their number was reduced by Casiri in his Bibliotheque Arabico- Espagnole de VEscurial, Madrid, 1760. In 1631 John Rhodius proposed a scheme for the arrangement of the university library at Padua, which has been recently published in the Serapeum by Dr Hoffman, from a manu script found in the town library at Hamburg, under the title of Ein bibliothekarisches Gidachten abgegeben im Jahre, 1631. His method is very similar to that of Claudius Clement, in his Musei sive Bibliothecce tarn privatce quam publicae exstructio, instructio, curm iisiis, 1635. A catalogue of the library of the Canon de Cordes, which was purchased by Mazarin, was compiled in 1643 by his librarian, Gabriel Naude, whose Addition a la vie de Louis XI. contains much curious matter on bibliography, but who is best known, perhaps, from his defence of the massacre of St Bartholomew. His Dissertatio de instruenda Bibliotheca had previously appeared in 1627 in a French version, entitled Avis pour dresser tine Bibliotheque, an English translation of which was published by John Evelyn in 1661; it was followed by several treatises of the same kind, containing minute instructions to librarians. 