Bibliography

I

Introduction

Bibliography (Greek bibliographia, “the writing of books”), originally, the writing or copying of books; since the mid-18th century, the word has come to mean a list of books or other forms of written material, or the technique of compiling such a list. Certain kinds of information are supplied in a bibliography: authors, titles, editions, and dates and places of publication; style of type, book size, and other physical characteristics may also be included. Frequently, bibliographies are annotated, that is, brief notes indicating the subject treated or commenting on the usefulness of a book are appended. Bibliographies, essential to scholars and those involved professionally with books—collectors, librarians, and dealers—can be useful sources of information for all serious readers.

Bibliography may be divided into two broad types: analytic (sometimes called critical) and descriptive. Analytic bibliography is concerned with books as objects; it uses the evidence of physical features (for example, the kind of paper and printing idiosyncrasies) to establish authorship or judge the reliability of variant texts. Descriptive bibliography, with which this article is concerned, is the systematic enumeration of publications; it is, in turn, divided into universal, or general, bibliography and selective bibliography. General bibliographies may list works on several subjects, published in various countries and at different times. Selective bibliographies are limited, perhaps, to a particular subject, to the country of origin, to works of one author, or to books for a particular purpose or audience.

II

Universal Bibliographies

The history of bibliography may be traced to the clay tablets of Nineveh, which recorded texts gathered from throughout Assyria, or to the lists of books in the library at Alexandria, which held copies of most of the writings of the ancient world. Over the centuries numerous attempts have been made to compile bibliographies that would similarly encompass the entire realm of books. One notable effort was the Bibliotheca Universalis (4 volumes, 1545-49) by the Swiss naturalist Konrad von Gesner, who recorded all the books in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin about which he could obtain information. Another is a listing of the world's rare and noteworthy books, Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres (3 volumes, 1810; 5th ed., 9 volumes, 1860-90), compiled by the French scholar Jacques Charles Brunet.

The British Library (formerly the Library of the British Museum) in London has so large a collection that its General Catalogue of Printed Books (108 volumes, 1881-1905; reissued and updated in 263 volumes, 1959-66) can almost be called a universal bibliography. It is certainly one of the most important general bibliographies extant, as are the catalogs of the holdings of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. These being copyright libraries—institutions entitled to a copy of every publication issued in their respective countries—their computer-generated, photo-offset printed catalogs also function selectively, as national bibliographies.

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III

Selective Bibliographies

In addition to these catalogs of the great national libraries, numerous important bibliographies exist that are limited to works of specific countries. Examples of retrospective compilations are the Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British America ..., 1641-1700 (3 volumes, 1945-51) and its predecessor, the Short-Title Catalogue ... 1475-1640 (1926). An American counterpart is Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from Its Discovery to the Present Time (29 volumes, 1868-92; 1928-36).

Current information on the publishing output of various countries is provided by trade bibliographies. These generally appear at regular and frequent intervals and list the works published or scheduled for publication by the nation's book trade. In this category in the United States are, among others, Publishers Weekly, which first appeared in 1872; Cumulative Book Index (1933 ff.); Publishers' Trade List Annual (1873 ff.); and the two publications based on it, Books in Print (1948 ff.) and Subject Guide to Books in Print (1957 ff.). Among the French trade bibliographies is Biblio (1935 ff.), which since 1972 has been continued by Bibliographie de la France—Biblio. The Deutsche Nationalbibliographie, published in Leipzig since 1931, is one of several German trade listings. Examples of English trade bibliographies are British Books in Print (1874 ff.) and British National Bibliography (1950 ff.).

IV

Modern Bibliography

With the proliferation of published material in recent years, effective organization of the sources of knowledge has become imperative. Such works as A World Bibliography of Bibliographies (1939-40; 4th ed., 5 volumes, 1965-66) by Theodore Besterman and its complement Bibliography Index (1938 ff.) are efforts to make all books on all subjects available to all readers. Standardization of bibliographical methods and bibliographical cooperation within and between nations have also become essential and are fostered by such bodies as the International Federation for Documentation, in Brussels, and its counterpart, the American Documentation Institute. Finally, the concept and practice of bibliography have been transformed by the application of new technology, especially by the electronic storage and retrieval of bibliographical information.

Guidance in choice and use of bibliographies is provided in the Guide to Reference Books, compiled by Eugene P. Sheehy et al. (10th ed., 1986).

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