up nothing though the pearl grounds be the best, and the catalogues are acknowledged to be surpassed by those of no other large public library. Something akin to our scheme, but a distant relation of it, has been attempted by the Royal Society in its extensive Index to the Scientific Papers in the periodicals and transactions of all nations; and by the South Kensington Museum in its Universal Art Catalogue. Both are printed, and any library or student may have them, but these creditable works lack scope and execution, being mere lists and not bibliographical catalogues. They are long paces however in the right direction. Bibliography is fast becoming an exact science, and not a whit too soon. It is high time to separate it from mere catalogue making. It is becoming a necessity to both the scholar and the collector (they are not always identical.) Indeed every considerable library should have two distinct catalogues exclusive of its shelf and administrative lists. The one raisonné or bibliographical, and the other its index, the latter so constructed as to serve all practical purposes in ordinary cases for a finding, record, and common reference catalogue. They should both be alphabetical, and the titles in the one without exception, be under headings the same as in the other. Let the one be full and descriptive, the other small, compact, and full of condensed brevity. By full titles with collations and descriptions is not meant anything so sprawling, irrelevant, slipshod and lumpy as the sumptuous works of Dr Dibdin, Ander Schiffahrt, or of others more recently published, printed with the same stupendous nihilities and vacuities; but tidy, exact, compact and comprehensive, showing in a nutshell all the reader wishes to know or see, short of the books themselves. It is not well to put a library into its catalogue, but better to put a catalogue into the library. A cum whatever he deems necessary or important. These titles then go to the printer who prints the whole, both the photogram and the manuscript, in such a manner as to leave room for mounting the photogram, and in the prescribed form, in large or small type according to the space required. This method gets rid of all revising and transcribing the titles, while the cost of printer's corrections is greatly reduced. The printer then prints as many copies as are required, some on thin cards and others on strong thin paper for laying down in volumes. The photograms printed on very thin paper are then laid down in the blank places left for them on the cards, and the titles are done, well done and quickly. Now there is no reason why these titles should not be perfect of their kind, and be produced at moderate cost as fast as they are demanded. An alphabetical catalogue so made is always perfect as far as it goes, and may be from time to time enlarged to any extent. The titles may be kept separate, or be mixed with the slip titles of any library. They may be shuffled and arranged in any order, class or subject. Index and cross reference cards may be added in print or manuscript. Press marks and additions in manuscript to adapt the titles to the particular copies of any library may be added by hand. Should a printed catalogue be made, these titles will supply the best copy, on short notice for the greater part of the work, the rest, in the way of addition or compression, may be done in the usual way by hand. By them books in the library can be compared to a dead certainty with copies in any other library. The photograms instead of being laid down on cards may be used for illustrating catalogues or other books, and as the negatives are kept may be supplied in large or small quantities. They serve admirably for comparing type, woodcuts, engravings, and general art purposes. They are very beautiful, and may well serve designers and artists for hints and models. But will they be beautiful for ever? Will they not fade? We answer that some of them in twenty, fifty or a hundred years, if printed by the ordinary silver process may fade. But they may, as well as anything else, be printed by one of the permanent processes. The negatives are numbered and so arranged on shelves like books that they may be referred to instantly. One shelf eight feet long will hold the negatives of 10,000 titles, as we know by experience. Our collection of photograms already made comprises many of the rarest books relating to America and the great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, such as the works of Marco Polo, Columbus, Vespucci, Varthema, Cortes, Enciso, Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Lopez de Gomara, Las Casas, and very many others; also the great collections of voyages, Grynaeus, Ramusio, Hakluyt, De Bry, Hulsius, Purchas, Haertgerts, Saeghman, Thevenot; the geographical works of Ptolemy, Gerard Jodé, Ortelius, Mercator, Hondius, and others; rare books on the East and West Indies, the Indian languages, Mexico, Peru, Brasil, Virginia, New England, Canada, Japan, China, Russia, and other countries; early Bibles, Psalms, and Testaments. We have also in our portfolio photograms of most of the early editions of Shakspeare, Milton, Bunyan, Raleigh, and others, with a good sprinkling of early English, French, Spanish, and Italian poetry and romances. When we have say 5000 titles relating to America, or any other extensive subject, it is proposed to print one-line Alphabetical Index Catalogues in small type, averaging about seventy letters in a line, and seventy lines on a page, no one title to occupy more than a single line, but in all cases to fill that line, with the name of the author or the heading, the title, the edition, the name of printer, place, date, and size, or so much as can be compressed into one line. This catalogue will serve as a price list of our card titles. A single example of these photograms is given in the frontispiece of this catalogue. Multiplied by three it will be perceived that Sanuto's Geography is a large folio. A few copies of Part I of our Bibliotheca Geographica have been printed on thicker paper, and have been illustrated with about four hundred photograms of the chief books, manuscripts and maps to be sold in the collection. The photograms are laid down on about one hundred leaves. like that of the frontispiece, the whole well bound by Pratt, making a thick octavo volume of some pretension and no little interest to the bibliographer. Those who wish to pursue this subject further may perhaps be aided by procuring of the author one of these illustrated copies, price five guineas. We shall be happy to give further information on this subject to any gentleman who is interested in it, or to supply samples of our photograms or photobibliographic cards. An apology is perhaps due to scholars for the many blunders, ignorances and typographical errors scattered through this our catalogue. Some of them are the printer's, and are easily corrected, but most of them are our own, and lie deeper. They escaped us in our one proof. We did not indulge in a revise, but we neither point them out nor apologize, believing it better to let the generous critic have the pleasure of finding them himself, and crowing. We can find, no doubt, two to his one, but it is only an auction catalogue and is not worth the trouble. Let him that is without errata in his own life indulge. Our Part II of this Bibliotheca Geographica is in course of preparation, the pagenation and numbers to be continued on from this. Our Essay on the Progress of Geography will accompany it. HENRY STEVENS, G M B THE NUGGETORY, 4, Trafalgar Square London, October 25, 1872. BIBLIOTHECA GEOGRAPHICA & HISTORICA 1 FIRST DAY'S SALE BBOT (Abiel) History of Andover [Massachu- A copy. This important volume of Local History has become very difficult to meet with. It is divided into eight Chapters, I. Topography; II. Settlement and Settlers; III. Indians; IV. Proceedings of the Town from 1656; V. Ecclesiastical and Parochial Affairs; VI. Education, Schools, Academies, with list and Account of Graduates; VII. Witchcraft; VIII. Wars, Pauperism, Population, Marriages, Births, Agriculture, etc. 2 Abert (Lieut. J. W.) Report of the Secretary of War communicating in Answer to a Resolution of the Senate a Report and Map of the EXAMINATION OF NEW MEXICO, made by Lieut. J. W. Abert, with all the 23 plates and the large and highly interesting map of the Territory of New Mexico, 1816-47, clean copy uncut, very scarce. 80 Washington, 1848 3 Abyssinia. Presbiteri Johannis, sive Abissinorom Imperii Descriptio, 17 by 14 inches, a map, mutilated in lower border. [Antverpiæ, 1570?] 4 Acapulco. A Plan of the Harbour of Acapulco on the Coast of Mexico in ye South Sea. (A view of 2 of the Ladrone Islands. A Plan of Manila,) 15 by 10 inches. R. W. Seale, sculp. 5 Açores Insulae. Has Insulas perlustravit summaque diligentia accuratissime descripsit et delineavit Ludovicus Teisera, Lusitanus, Regiæ Maiestatis Cosmographus [with Latin description of 3 Islands at the back], 12 by 13 inches, fine copy, scarce. [Antverpia], 1583 B |