until five in the evening: ......... From its door shall BOOK III. Chapter II. Systems. Classificatory resound that resound that cry which has never yet been heard in the Republic of Letters: 'Come in, all you who desire to read, come in freely.'" After mentioning some of the far-fetched schemes. which super-subtle writers on this subject had previously proposed, he observes that he would hold such complicated and labyrinthine methods in as little esteem as an unintelligible author, and adds, "I think that system best which is easiest, least complex, and most accordant with established usage." It is obvious, therefore, that whilst Naudé did, to some noticeable extent, improve on preceding systems, both as to the precision of his classes, and as to the order of their sequencean improvement which will be very manifest if, for instance, we compare his arrangement with Clement'she expressly disclaimed all desire to achieve reputation as a daring innovator. And in this respect, as we shall see in the sequel, his example has been followed by those of his countrymen who have rendered the most 1 Dialogue entre Mascarat et Saintange, as quoted by M. le Comte de Laborde in the fourth of his letters De l'Organisation des bibliothèques dans Paris, 20. truly efficient services to literature in this not very attractive field of labour. BOOK III. Chapter II. Classificatory Systems. Scheme. I come now to what is substantially the ordinary Bouillaud's system of modern French bibliographers. The honour of originating it has been claimed, sometimes for the learned Jesuit Jean Garnier, and sometimes for Gabriel Martin, for so long a period the most eminent of the Paris booksellers; but the claim which is best authenticated seems to be that of Ismael Bouillaud, the compiler of the sale-catalogue of the famous Library of De Thou. Owing to the singular circumstance which retarded, without preventing, the dispersion of that noble collection, Bouillaud's catalogue had lain long in MS. before it was sent to press. It was not published until 1679, and then appeared under the editorship of Joseph Quesnel. The learned author makes no display of his erudition or of his ingenuity, by adding new classes, or by coining new and sonorous names for the old ones; but he lays hold of five classes, some of which will be found in all the preceding schemes, and all of them, with others, in that of Naudé, namely: I.-Theology; IV.-Philosophy; V.-Literature; and brings all the books with which he had to deal under one or other of these grand divisions. The more important of the details of this classification will be shewn most advantageously, and with most economy of BOOK III. time, when I come to speak of the modifications inClassificatory troduced into it by Martin, and by De Bure. Chapter II. Systems. In the year preceding the publication of the Bibliotheca Thuana, Garnier gave to the learned world his able and elaborate Systema Bibliotheca Collegii Parisiensis Societatis Jesu. I give the classes and the main divisions only, in the first form in which they appeared. Class I.-THEOLOGY:- Class II.-PHILOSOPHY: 1. Holy Scriptures. 2. Biblical Criticism (Glos- 4. Interpreters of the Old severally. 5. Collections of the Fath ers, both Greek and La tin (Bibliotheca Pa- 6. Greek Fathers. 7. Latin Fathers. 8. Scholastic Theologians. versial Theologians. 10. Casuists. 11. Ascetics. 12. Preachers. 1. Philosophers. 4. Grammarians. 6. Poets. Literæ humaniores. 7. Philologists. Class III.-HISTORY:1. Geographers. 2. Chronologists. 3. Universal History,both ecclesiastical and political. 4. General History of the Church. 5. History of particular Churches. 6. History of Religious Orders. 7. History of Saints. 10. Italian History. 11. French History. nish, Swedish, etc.) 17. History of the Countries adjacent (the Turks, Hungary, Poland, Muscovy, etc.) 18. History of the New World; Voyages and Travels. 19. Genealogical History. 20. Literary History. 21. Iconological History BOOK III. Chapter II. (Archæology, Numis- Classificatory matics, etc.) 22. Natural History. 23. Artificial History. 24. Fabulous History. 2. Canon and Ritual Law. 5. Foreign Law (of vari- 6. Law of Nations. Father Garnier's scheme embraces, in the whole, 461 sub-divisions, of which 74 belong to Theology; 88 to Philosophy; 227 to History; and 72 to Jurisprudence; and it may fairly be said that in its minutest ramifications it bears the marks of honest and intelligent labour. The arrangement of the classes "History" (at least as to its first twenty sections) and "Jurisprudence" displays, I think, a great improvement on all preceding systems. In common with the latter, that of the class "Philosophy" is clumsy and confused. Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, Poetics, and Philology, are all embraced in this class, whilst works of fiction, both in prose and verse, form a section of the class History, under the designation Ilistoria fabu Systems. BOOK III. Chapter II. Systems. losa. The vast field of "Politics," using that term in Classificatory its widest sense, is inclosed in another section of the same class, and is named Historia artificialis; and the author defines it as including (1) what relates to man individually—his food, clothing, housing, death, and burial; (2) what relates to man as existing in families— marriage, servitude, etc.; (3) what relates to societies. of men; and so on. The formidable division "Heterodoxia," (Hæreticorum et impiorum libri in octo ordines,) brings up the rear, but may be regarded rather as an Leibnitz' appendix to the preceding classes than as itself forming a fifth class. About the year 1700, Leibnitz drew up his Idea bibliothecæ publicæ secundum classes scientiarum ordinandæ, in which he proposes ten main divisions viz.:— I. Theology; II. Jurisprudence; III. Medicine; IV. Intellectual Philosophy; V. Mathematics (Philosophia rerum imaginationis); VI. Physics (Philosophia rerum sensibilium); VII. Philology (Res linguarum, but including Poetry); VIII. Civil History; IX. Literary History and Bibliography; X. Collective Works and Miscellanies. In this classification it will be seen the term "Philology" is used in a sense almost co-extensive with that in which bibliographers now commonly employ the word "Literature"; whilst "Medicine" makes almost its last 1 Adding, after considerable amplification on these heads, "ad hoc caput, referuntur quæ traduntur de præmiis et pœnis, de militia, de mereimoniis, de artificiis, de agricultura," etc.-Systema, etc., 86. 2 Published by Feller in Otium Hanoveranum, 128-138. (Leipz. 1718, 8vo.) Comp. Guhrauer, Bibliothekarisches aus Leibnizens Leben und Schriften, (Serapeum, xii, 27-30). |