Chapter VI: Special Bibliographies

Bibliographies of special subjects are more useful than any other books in the formation of a library. The articles in the new edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ will be found valuable for this purpose, but those who wish for fuller information must refer to Dr. Julius Petzholdt's elaborate _Bibliotheca Bibliographica_ (Leipzig, 1866), or to the _Bibliographie des Bibliographies_ of M. Léon Vallée (Paris, 1885). The late Mr. Cornelius Walford contributed a paper "On Special Collections of Books" to the Transactions of the Conference of Librarians, 1877 (pp. 45-49), in which he specially referred to the subject of Insurance.

In the present chapter I propose to refer to some of the most useful bibliographies, but to save space the full titles will not be given, and this is the less necessary as they can mostly be found in the above books or in that useful little volume we owe to the authorities of the British Museum--"Hand-list of Bibliographies, Classified Catalogues, and Indexes placed in the Reading-room," 1881.

_Agriculture._--Weston's Tracts on Practical Agriculture and
Gardening (1773), contains a Chronological Catalogue of
English Authors, and Donaldson's Agricultural Biography
(1854) brings the subject down to a later date. Victor
Donatien de Musset-Pathay published a _Bibliographie
Agronomique_ in 1810, and Loudon's _Encyclopædia of
Agriculture_ contains the Literature and Bibliography of
Agriculture, British, French, German, and American.

_Ana._--In Peignot's _Repertoire de Bibliographies
Spéciales_ (1810) will be found at pp. 211-268, a list of
books of Ana, and Gabriel Antoine Joseph Hécart published at
Valenciennes, 1821, under the name of J.G. Phitakaer, a
bibliography entitled "Anagrapheana." Namur's _Bibliographie
des Ouvrages publiés sous le nom d'Ana_ was published at
Bruxelles in 1839. The late Sir William Stirling Maxwell
made a collection of books of Ana, a privately printed
catalogue of which he issued in 1860.

_Angling._--Sir Henry Ellis printed privately in 1811 a
small octavo pamphlet of 21 pages which he entitled "A
Catalogue of Books on Angling, with some brief notices of
several of their authors," which was an extract from the
_British Bibliographer_. In 1836, Pickering printed a
_Bibliotheca Piscatoria_, which was formed upon Sir Henry
Ellis's corrected copy of the above Catalogue. Mr. J.
Russell Smith published in 1856 "A Bibliographical Catalogue
of English writers on Angling and Ichthyology," which was
soon superceded by the following work by Mr. T. Westwood. "A
new Bibliotheca Piscatoria, or a general Catalogue of
Angling and Fishing Literature." London, 1861 (another
edition, edited conjointly with T. Satchell, 1883). Mr. R.
Blakey published in 1855, "Angling Literature of all
Nations." London, 1855. 12mo. Mr. J.J. Manley, M.A.,
published in 1883, "Literature of Sea and River Fishing," as
one of the Handbooks of the International Fisheries
Exhibition.

_Architecture._--LACROIX (E.). Bibliographie des Ingénieurs,
des Architectes, des Chefs d'Usines industrielles, des
Elèves des Ecoles polytechniques et professionnelles et des
Agriculteurs. Première (--Troisième) Série. Paris, 1864-67.
4to.

_Assurance_ (_Life_).--Lewis Pocock published "A
Chronological List of Books and Single Papers" relating to
this subject in 1836, a second edition of which was
published in 1842.

_Astronomy._--Lalande published his valuable "Bibliographie
Astronomique" at Paris, 1803. Otto Struve's Catalogue of the
Library of the Pulkova Observatory, published at St.
Petersburg in 1860, is highly esteemed by astronomers. The
first part of the Catalogue of the United States Naval
Observatory at Washington, by Prof. E.S. Holden, is devoted
to Astronomical Bibliography.

---- HOUZEAU (J.C.) and LANCASTER (A.), Bibliographie
générale de l'Astronomie. Bruxelles, 1880. 8vo. In progress.

---- Mr. E.B. Knobel, Secretary of the Royal Astronomical
Society, printed in the _Monthly Notices_ of that Society
for November, 1876 (pp. 365-392), a very useful short
Reference Catalogue of Astronomical Papers and Researches,
referring more especially to (1) Double Stars; (2) Variable
Stars; (3) Red Stars; (4) Nebulæ and Clusters; (5) Proper
Motions of Stars; (6) Parallax and Distance of Stars; (7)
Star Spectra. Mr. E.S. Holden's "Index Catalogue of Books
and Memoirs relating to Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars" was
printed in the _Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections_ in
1877.

_Bible._--The famous Le Long published at Paris, in 1713,
his "Discours historiques sur les principales éditions des
Bibles polyglottes," and in 1723, in two volumes, folio, his
great work "Bibliotheca Sacra." This was edited and
continued by A.G. Masch, and published at Halæ Magd. in five
volumes, quarto. 1774-97. T. Llewelyn published in 1768
"Historical Account of the British or Welsh Versions and
editions of the Bible." A privately printed "List of various
editions of the Bible" was issued in 1778, which has been
attributed to Dr. Ducarel. John Lewis's "Complete History of
the several Translations of the Holy Bible and New Testament
into English" was published in 1818, and Dr. Henry Cotton's
"List of Editions" (Oxford, 1821, 2nd edition, 1852) was
intended as an Appendix to that work. Orme's _Bibliotheca
Biblica_ was published at Edinburgh in 1824, and Hartwell
Horne's _Manual of Biblical Bibliography_ at London in 1839.
Bagster's _Bible in Every Land_ (1848), although not
strictly bibliographical, must be mentioned here, because it
gives under each language a notice of all versions published
in that language. Lowndes' British Librarian or Book
Collector's Guide. Class I. Religion and its History.
London, 1839. 8vo. Parts 1, 2, 3 are devoted to Holy
Scriptures, Biblical Commentaries, Biblical Disquisitions,
Scripture Biography, Scripture Geography, etc. The work
itself was left incomplete Dr. H. Cotton published at
Oxford, in 1855, a work entitled "Rhemes and Doway. An
Attempt to show what has been done by Roman Catholics for
the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures in English." In 1859
J.G. Shea published at New York a "Bibliographical Account
of Catholic Bibles, Testaments, and other portions of
Scripture translated from the Latin Vulgate, and printed in
the United States," and in 1861 E.B. O'Callaghan published
at Albany a "List of editions of the Holy Scriptures and
parts thereof, printed in America previous to 1860." E.
Reuss published at Brunswick, in 1872, a Bibliography of the
Greek New Testament. Dr. Isaac Hall printed a Critical
Bibliography of American Greek Testaments at Philadelphia in
1883. Mr. Henry Stevens, the eminent bibliographer, is a
special authority on Bibles, and his work, entitled "The
Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, 1877, or a bibliographical
description of nearly one thousand representative Bibles in
various languages, chronologically arranged" (London, 1878),
contains some of the information he possesses.

_Biography._--Oettinger's _Bibliographie Biographique
Universelle_ (1854) is a most useful work, although it is
now unfortunately somewhat out of date.

_Book-keeping._--B.F. Foster's _Origin and Progress of
Book-keeping_ (1852) contains an account of books published
on this subject from 1543 to 1852.

_Botany._--Pritzel's _Thesaurus Literaturæ Botanicæ_ (1851,
another edition 1872-77) is _the_ Bibliography of the
subject, and this work is supplemented by Mr. Daydon
Jackson's Index of Botany, published by the Index Society.
Trimen's Botanical Bibliography of the British counties,
London, 1874. 8vo.

_Chemistry._--R. Ruprecht, Bibliotheca Chemica et
Pharmaceutica, 1858-70. _Göttingen_, 1872.

_Classics._--Dr. Edward Harwood published his "View of the
various editions of the Greek and Roman Classics" in 1790.
He was followed in 1802 by Thomas Frognall Dibdin, whose
work was much enlarged, and reappeared in several editions;
the fourth and best being published in 1827 (2 vols. 8vo.).
J.W. Moss published his "Manual of Classical Bibliography"
in 1825, 2 vols. 8vo. Henry G. Bohn's General Catalogue,