Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/398

 Matriculation Books. 1 " 7 OTHING seems at first sight less promising of informa- of them of obscure persons. Nevertheless, the publication of the old Matriculation Books of the Universities of Bologna, Heidelberg, Oxford, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Greifswald and others, is giving rise, especially in Germany, to a most varied and instructive literature. Some of these books begin with the enumeration of persons who had as yet no family name, and were simply called John, Thomas or Richard, by their baptismal names. They had, nevertheless, to be dis- tinguished from each other on the register. Thus, in reading these pages we are perusing the documentary evidence of the origin and gradual growth of family names. The first way of distinguishing two or more persons of the same baptismal name from each other, was by adding the baptismal name or the trade or profession of the father in the genitive, filitts having to be supplied. This genitive became subsequently the family name. This is the origin of names like Pauli, Nicolai, Matthiae, Fabri, Sartoris. Out of these names, by a further development, arose names like Thomasius, Nicholasius, Sartorius, Pictorius. In every instance is added to the name of the student, the name of the diocese from which he comes, or the name of his native place, or both together. Before the Reformation the name of the diocese is always given, subsequently the name of the birth- place is more usual, as it is the exclusive custom at the present day. These names of places became likewise family names, frequently with the Latin prepositions de or a prefixed. Thus the third name on the Register of Heidelberg is that of Wil- helmus de Fontibus, William of Wells, who is supposed to be 1 Read before the Belfast Meeting of the Library Association, September, 1894.
 * ^ tion or amusement than long lists of names, the majority