Chapter IV: How to Treat a Title-Page (3)

In most catalogues the note of the size will finish the entry, but it is a very useful addition when the number of pages of all books in single volumes is given. Sometimes the pages of the book itself only are noted without reference to the preliminary matter, and sometimes the Roman numerals are added on to the Arabic numerals and given as one total; but this latter practice is not to be commended. The best plan is to set down the pages thus--pp. xv, 421 (some put this pp. xv + 421, but the plus sign is not necessary); or if the preliminary matter is not paged, thus--half-title, title, five preliminary leaves, pp. 467.

In the case of very rare and valuable works, a full collation becomes necessary, and such collation should be drawn up according to the plan accepted among bibliographers, which can be seen in the standard bibliographies of early printed books, and such a model bibliography as Upcott's _Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works relating to English Topography_ (3 vols., 8vo, 1818).

Even when it is not thought necessary to give a collation, it will be well to notice if a book contains a portrait, or plates.

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FOOTNOTES:

[21] _Quarterly Review_, vol. lxxii., p. 8.

[22] "On the Alphabetical Arrangement of the Titles of Anonymous Books" (_Transactions and Proceedings of the Conference of Librarians_, 1877, pp. 97-9).

[23] Referring to my remarks on the use of the word "anonym," I may point out that this is not the correct title of Barbier's work. He used _Anonymes_ as an adjective (_ouvrages anonymes_), and not as a substantive.

[24] This point weakens Lord Mahon's arguments, because the same objection would apply to all the books with authors' names.

[25] I had the privilege of talking over these rules with Mr. Bradshaw for many consecutive days, when I inspected the University Library in 1878.

[26] For useful notes on short titles and booksellers' catalogues, Mr. Charles F. Blackburn's amusing _Hints on Catalogue Titles and on Index Entries_ (1884) may be consulted.

[27] The names of places as they appear in a Latin form are frequently much disguised. A list of some of the most common of these names will be found in the Appendix.

[28] It was this practice which confused a correspondent of the _Athenæum_, who published his discovery that the first folio of Shakespeare was not a folio at all.

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