Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/83

 A Great Catalogue. 71 Volumes of essays or miscellaneous collections are described, set out, and indexed, each article in like manner appearing under the name of its subject in the general alphabet. The publications of academies and learned societies (except those dealing with science) are analysed and indexed in a similar manner. But the feature of this catalogue which most distinguishes it from others is the treatment of large collections of the highest importance, such as the editions of Greek and Latin fathers issued under the name of the Abbe Migne, the Monumenta Germanise Historica of Pertz, the French historical collections of Bouquet, the Italian collections of Muratori, and the great Thesauri Antiquitatum of Graevius, Gronovius, and others. In the treatment of each of these extensive and difficult works, there is first an elaborate setting out of the contents in an alphabetical sequence under the most important word, and secondly each item is referred to its proper place in the general catalogue, under both author and subject, and this not less with short pieces, sometimes not exceeding a page, than in the case of lengthy treatises. To convey an idea of the labour involved in this process, Dr. Morison, the late Provost, who signed the prefatory notes to the first four volumes, mentions that the treat- ment of the several series entered under the name of Migne alone, upon which several persons were engaged at different times, is equivalent to the continuous work of one person for two years. The table of contents of these series occupies 25 pages, 50 columns of solid nonpareil, and the author and subject references dispersed throughout the catalogue number many thousands. Dr. Morison adds: "It is believed that none of these great collections has ever before been analysed, and the contents, under appropriate heads, made accessible to scholars." May it not be added that the service is not to scholars in Baltimore alone, but that by the dispersion of the catalogue scholars all over the world will reap advantage from the labours of the staff of the Peabody Library ? Other libraries which possess any of these important collections may with great advantage refer in their catalogues to the analysis which is here provided. As a result and reward of the laborious processes adopted, the catalogue abounds in articles of great value to scholars and students. Of these I select two for particular mention ; that under the word " Inscriptions," and that under the word " Drama."