DIFFICULTIES, RULES, AND DETAILS.

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845

ville, in 1526, begins thus: Libro del Sabio et Clarissimo Fabulador
Ysopo, historiado et anotado. Now although it be well known,
what an "Æsopius moralisatus?” is, and although this be only a trans-
lation of it, yet it would be very wrong to omit the otherwise
useless words Libro del Sabio et clarissimo Fabulador, and give the
title only as Ysopo hystoriado
It is important not to omit
the words "nunc primum edita” . . . . . If the title-page does not
afford this intimation, it ought to be added.
In a well-
compiled catalogue the student ought not only to be warned of
the additions to, but of the omissions from, a title. It is obvious
that to omit only what is useless, and no more, requires great
judgment. It is not, perhaps, so obvious, although equally true,
that in order not to infringe the rule of not altering any word in
a title-page, it is often necessary to allow many otherwise useless
words to remain. When those who catalogue abridge a title care-
lessly, they often not only alter the sense, . . and meaning of the
author, but render him liable to the charge of ignorance. — I have
to catalogue the following work of Aristotle,-

Rhetoricorum Artisque Poeticæ libri atque etiam Problematum
sectiones omnes.

I might omit the useless words libri and sectiones, and abridge the
title thus,-

Rhetorica; Poetica; Problemata.

But then I alter the words of the title. I cannot say merely-
Rhetoricorum Artisque Poeticæ atque etiam Problematum.
This will be considered so absurd as to be impossible. It is not
so, however. . . . . . .

It should be further remarked that in cataloguing such early printed books as have no title-pages, the words of the head-title (if any) should be set out, at length, and also those of the colophon. If there be neither head-title nor colophon, the work must be described, with sufficient fulness to identify it, in the language of the Catalogue. As, for example, in the catalogue of an English Library, the Editio princeps of Æsop would appear thus:

1 Appendix to Report, ut supra, 387, 388.

BOOK III.

Chapter III.
Difficulties,

Rules, and
Details.

BOOK III.

Chapter III.
Difficulties,
Rules, and
Details.

[Esop's Fables and Life. Gr. and Lat. [3 pts., containing together 167 leaves; 25 lines in a page.] Pt. 1. Begins: Bonus Accursius doctissimo ac sapientissimo ducali quæstori Johanni Francisco Turriano salutem plurimam dicit. [On page 3 begins:] Αισωπου βιος του μυθοποιού, Μαξιμω τω Πλανούδη συγγραφεις. [32 leaves, including the letter to Turriano.] Atownoυ μUSO. Aεтos xx! αλωπηξ, etc. [38 leaves.] Pt. 2. Begins: Vita Esopi fabulatoris clarissimi e Greco Latina p Rynuciu facta ad Renerēdissimū Patre Dominu Antonium tituli Sancti Chrysogoni Presbyterū Cardinalem, et primo prohoemium. [32 leaves.] Argumētum fabula? Esopi e Græco i Latinu. Ends: Vita Esopi per Rynucium thettalum traducta. Verum quoniam ab eo non nulla fuerüt prætermissa: fortassis qa Græcus eius codex esset minus emendatus: Ego Bonus Accursius Pisanus: eadem in ea omnia correxi: et emendavi. [27 leaves.] Pt. 3. Begins: MuSot Atownov. Fabula Esopi. [Select Fables; in double columns, Greek and Latin; preceded by another preface of] Bonus Accursius Pisanus... Johanni Francisco Turriano .. Ends: Τέλος των του Αισοπου μυθων. Finis Æsopi fabularum. Bonus Accursins Pisanus impressit: qui non doctorum hominum, sed rudium ac puerorum gratia hunc laborem suscepit. [38 leaves.] ED. PR. [Milan, 1480?] 4°

In other cases, the necessary bibliographical explanations may be most concisely afforded in the shape of a note appended to the title, or description, as thus:

[Select Fables of E., with the moral applied to each.] Begins: Omniboni Leoniceni in Æ. præfatio [being a letter to Giovan Francesco Gonzaga, the first Marquis of Mantua.] Ends: E. e Græco in Latinum traductus p Omnibonu Leonicenu fœliciter explicit.

[Valdarfer, Venice? 1471?] 4° The vol. consists of 42 leaves, and a full page of 26 lines. It has no pagination or signatures. Printed with the same type as Cicero's Orations and Pliny's letters of 1471. Esopus Grecus per Laurētium vallēsem traduct?. [In prose. 33 Fables of Esop.] B. L.

Per me Go. [Gottfridum] Bac, Antwerpie, [1485?] 4° Six leaves. Under the title a wood-cut with the letters I. H. S. and four medallions representing the symbols of the four Evangelists. On the reverse of the last leaf the device of the printer.

Esopus grec per Laurētiū vallensem traduct?. [33 fables of Esop in Latin prose.]

G. L.

Per me Jacob de breda, Dauētriæ, [1490?] 4°

DIFFICULTIES, RULES, AND DETAILS.

847 Fabule Esopi cum commento. [The Esopus moralisatus, with a prose contmentary.] End. Explicit liber fabula, Esopi vna cum commento. [The Esopus moralisatus, with a prose commentary.] End. Explicit liber fabula, Esopi vna cum commento. Impressus London per Winandum de Worde in vico nuncupato the Fletestrete comorantem in signo solis anno M.CCCCCIII. B. L. A Few MS. NOTES.

4o

A re

36 pages, 28 lines of verse to a page, and 54 of prose.
gister, but no pagination. On the title-page, under the title,
a wood-cut of a school-master and three scholars,-on the
last page the device of Wynkyn de Worde.

Fabule Esopi [in verse] cum commento. [Esopus moralisatus.
Each fable is followed by a moral and comment: the colophon is
Fabularū liber cũ glosa per Michaelem nigru impressus cōmorantē
supra ponte seti Michaelis ad intersignū scti iohanis evageliste fe-
licit finit.] B. L.
Michel Le Noir, [Paris, 1510?] 4°
Without numbers to the pages, but with the sig. A-E, each of
eight leaves, except B, and E, which have only six; 36 folios.
altogether.

In that Spanish Edition of the Esopus moralisatuş which was mentioned in the extract from Mr. Panizzi, (as in many other Editions,) the fables of other authors are included. These must be specified, as for example:

Libro del sabio et clarissimo fabulador Ysopo hystoriado et anno-
tado. [The Esopus moralisatus, with the Extravagantes, the New
Fables of Remicius and Avianus, the collected Fables of Petrus
Alphunsi, Poggio, etc.] Sp. G. L.

Jacobo Cromberger, Sevilla, 1526. fol. 1

BOOK III.

Chapter III.
Difficulties,

Rules, and
Details.

the preparation of title-slips.

For all books, whether old or new, rare or common, Other details in the specification of the imprint (or at least of the place and date of printing,) and of the size, is essential. For early printed books, and for all books or tracts which are characterized by important peculiarities of any kind, the name of the printer, or publisher, or the names of both, should also be given. The description of the size of a book, simple as it seems, is becoming increasingly difficult from the variations in the dimensions and

1 Catalogue of the Printed Books in the British Museum (1841), 123-125.

BOOK III.

Chapter III.
Difficulties,

Rules, and

Details.

shape of paper, the frequent absence of water-marks, and the growing vagaries in this particular, of publishers and printers. Signatures are a very insufficient guide. They are precisely the same for octavos, when imposed in halfsheets, as for quartos, and so with the other sizes. For old books, however, the signatures and water-lines, together, will usually suffice. The following table will serve to shew, at a glance, the ordinary occurrence of the principal signatures (A. B. C., a. b. c., etc.,) in the different forms from folio to 32mo.

In preparing titles for Catalogues, (whether it be intended to transcribe or to print them,) it should be an imperative instruction that they be written on slips of paper, (or on cards,) of uniform size. It will also be useful to include in them a word or two which may serve to identify the origin of the books,-whether by purchase, by copyright, or by gift,-and to indicate the date of their respective acquisition.

I have, in practice, found these various requirements to be most satisfactorily met by the use of printed slips, as for example: