2000

EH -- Gastronomy

Since the 1970s, Hans U. Weiss has owned and operated the rare book store Bibliotheca Gastronomica in Zürich, specializing in gastronomic literature. The present volume is the result of years of work and contains 4,364 entries for German-language books on gastronomy published before 1914 (a reason for the choice of cutoff date is not given). Books dealing with beverages or with factory-produced foodstuffs were excluded; books on home economics were included only if they contained a large portion on cookery. Entry is in a single alphabetical sequence under author's name or under title for anonymous works. The bibliographic descriptions vary in completeness, presumably because the author is sometimes describing a copy in hand, at other times quoting from a secondary source. Most unfortunately, he does not indicate which books he has examined personally. Although Weiss had access to several major private collections of cookbooks (particularly that of Rolf Dittmar of Wiesbaden), it is a pity that he did not extend his research to large public library and state library collections, where he could surely have found more candidates for inclusion. Monetary values are noted for some of the books, although giving such values is in some cases guesswork. Name, title, and subject indexes are included. In spite of the work's flaws, it is likely to become the standard German-language bibliography for this subject. [sh/crc]
 
 

This work catalogs the Italian and Latin holdings of the Bibliothèque Internationale de Gastronomie (BING), an institution founded through the initiative of Orazio Bagnasco and housed in Sorengo, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The library's holdings comprise ca. 3,500 books and manuscripts from the 14th century to the year 1899, formerly held in private collections (the largest of which was apparently that of Bagnasco himself, whose bookplate is visible on many of the title pages reproduced here). Of these, the current volumes present the items in Italian and Latin: 2,073 books and 77 manuscripts. The works are listed in a single alphabet under author, or title for anonymous works. Title page reproductions (in less-than-actual size) are given for first editions or for the oldest edition held by the library. The extensive entries give authors' names (unfortunately without their dates), a diplomatic transcription of the title page with all line divisions indicated, the usual bibliographic information, references in other catalogs and bibliographies, subject descriptors, and other annotations of interest, such as dedications. The chosen layout results in much wasted space on most pages. The copious indexes are preceded by title lists in order of author, then in chronological order. Access is provided to writers of dedications, provenance, subjects, places of publication, and printers. [sh/crc]
 
 

For the most part, the present work replaces the numerous earlier works that cover the bibliography of gastronomy in the Netherlands, among them John Landwehr's Het nederlandse kookboek 1510-1945 (1995). The bibliographies consulted during the compilation of this work are cited in the detailed list of abbreviations (vol. 1, p. xx-xxvi). The work's scope takes in books published in the Netherlands, in Belgium, or in one of their colonies, in the years 1474 to 1960, as well as books published in Dutch or Flemish in other parts of the world. Unlike Landwehr's bibliography, which is organized chronologically by century, the present work lists books alphabetically by author, or by the first significant word of the title in cases of title entries. A total of 7,167 entries, including later editions, are listed under their respective first editions. The entries give full bibliographic descriptions and in some cases indications of library holdings. The extensive second volume, which has an introduction in several languages, consists of indexes which give access by subject, country of publication, language, and publisher (listed both under place name and publisher's name). [sh/crc]
 
 

The first edition of this attempt at a complete bibliography of gastronomic literature in Portuguese appeared in 1988. Most of the 1,014 items listed here are from the holdings of the National Library of Portugal, whose call numbers are provided in the entries. Organization is alphabetical by title. Inexplicably, no indications of pagination appear in the entries. The majority of the items are 20th-century; only nine are dated earlier than 1875, the oldest being Antonio Rodriques's Arte de cozinha from 1680. No subject index is included, only an index of authors. [sh/crc]

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