AB - Bibliographies and Catalogs

2007

AB – Bibliographies and Catalogs

Latin Manuscript Books before 1600: A List of the Printed Catalogues and Unpublished Inventories of Extant Collections. Paul Oskar Kristeller. München: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 22 cm. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Hilfsmittel, ...). Supplementary volume publ. by Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover. [07-2-267]

Ergänzungsband 2006 [Supplementary Volume 2006]. Sigrid Krämer. 2007. 153 p. (... , 23). ISBN 978-3-7752-1130-7: EUR 20

Paul Oskar Kristeller (1905-1999) is the creator of the catalog of manuscript catalogs. Latin Manuscript Books before 1600 first appeared in 1948 in New York, was published in two revised editions, in 1960 and 1965, then in a 4th revised edition in 1993 by Monumenta Germaniae Historica under the direction of Sigrid Krämer. Despite the title, the works included were not only in Latin, but also in other languages of general Western origin, including Greek.

This work is still an essential reference work, but the title of this latest “supplement” is somewhat misleading. Although the preface is dated 2006, its author specifically states that the volume contains everything new that has appeared in the ten years between the previous edition (1993) and the end of 2002, noting that the work does not claim to be complete. Inexplicably, the 5th edition posted on the Internet by Monumenta Germaniae Historica (http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/kristeller [visited 2010-06-15]) is not mentioned, nor are various other relevant Internet resources.

The volume is divided into the usual three sections: Section A, Bibliography and statistics of libraries and their collections of manuscripts; Section B, Works describing manuscripts of more than one city or groups of libraries; and Section C, Printed catalogues and handwritten inventories of individual libraries, by cities. The latter comprises the bulk of the bibliographical references, citing works held by individual libraries. Included here are useful references not only to recent manuscript catalogs, but also to older catalogs and essays not mentioned in the 4th edition. Thanks to the support of the Morgan Library, the literature about holdings in North America is especially comprehensive. A wish for the future: since there is already an electronic version of this work online, it could be updated regularly to provide a more current reference site. [ch/akb]

Catalogue des manuscrits médiévaux de la Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Fribourg [Catalog of Medieval Manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Fribourg]. Romain Jurot. Dietikon-Zürich: Urs-Graf-Verlag, 2006. 352 p. ill. 31 cm. ISBN 3-85951-245-5: SFr. 168, EUR 116 [07-1-002]

Until now, only portions of the medieval manuscript collection of the Fribourg Cantonal Library have been fully described in modern catalogs. The present work offers full descriptions of all 181 manuscripts in the collection. Author Romain Jurot is a scholar of liturgics and a cataloger of rare books and manuscripts. He has previously published a catalog of the incunabula at Porrentruy and a catalog of medieval manuscripts from Pfäfers that are currently in the collection of the Stiftsarchiv St. Gallen.

The largest group of manuscripts (70 in number) belonged to the Cistercian monastery of Hauterive. Fifteen are from the Jesuit church of Saint-Michel in Fribourg, nine from the Augustinian canons, seven from the Cistercians of La Part-Dieu, and 12 from the Capuchins of Fribourg. An introduction by Josef Leisibach gives a history of the collection. Mr. Jurot’s own introduction provides information on the medieval library of the Cistercians at Hauterive and on their scriptorium, and includes information on the visits made to the library by the famous collector Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1822 and 1823.

The catalog entries are well organized and include all the usual elements found in the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft’s guidelines: physical description, foliation, decoration, provenance, etc. Happily, the contents of each manuscript are described in generous detail. Each entry contains bibliographical references.

The manuscripts run the gamut of monastic collections: Biblical exegesis, Church Fathers, theology, hagiography, prayer books, but also registers of deeds, the natural sciences, and belles-lettres. Aside from several fragments from the 11th century, the collection contains 25 complete 12th-century manuscripts, with many of the rest dating to the 15th century.

The catalog includes a topical index as well as indexes of poetry, proverbs and incipits, and ends with an appendix presenting ownership stamps used by the Bibliothèque cantonale. [ch/crc]

Spanische Buchmalerei des Mittelalters [Spanish Book Illumination of the Middle Ages]. Mireille Mentré. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2006. 285 p. ill. 31 cm. ISBN 978-3-89500-196-3: EUR 78 [07-1-003]

This work, despite the misleading German title (a poor translation of the original: El estilo mozarabe: la pintura Cristiana hispanica en torno al año Mil), focuses on Mozarabic Christian manuscripts from the 10th and 11th centuries. While historians use the term Mozarabic to refer to Christians living under Muslim domination from the 8th century onward, Mentré includes manuscripts from additional areas ruled by Christians, but using unique forms of expression reflecting the confluence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish populations. The layout and format, including 146 full-page reproductions, are very fine. The final chapters, on the distinctive graphic composition and stylistic traits and on the spiritual basis of the style, are also very good. The earlier chapters on the historical background, context, and the relation of text and illustration, could be better structured in order to make the development of the style more apparent. For a clearer overview, see John Williams, Frühe spanische Buchmalerei (München, 1977). Unfortunately, the work is marred by a terrible translation that makes some “hairraising” errors, resulting in a tiresome and aggravating read. [pb/ab]

Die Wiegendrucke der Universitätsbibliothek Basel [Incunabula of the University Library of Basel]. Basel: Schwabe. 24 cm. (Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek Basel, 7).

Vol 1. Die Wiegendrucke aus den deutschsprachigen Regionen um Basel [Incunabula from the German-Speaking Areas near Basel]. Pierre L. Van der Haegen. 2006. xix, 392 p. ill. ISBN 978-3-7965-1092-2: EUR 40.50 [07-2-270]

The Publications of the Basel University Library series began in 1998 with a catalog (see RREA 6:11 ) of incunabula printed in Basel, Switzerland, including those held by other libraries, fittingly published by Schwabe, the oldest publishing house still in business. Now a second catalog has been published in the series, again compiled by Pierre Van der Haegen. In this volume, the author has compiled incunabula published “near Basel,” whereby this concept is interpreted broadly. About half of the 600 publications come from Strasbourg, a large number from Augsburg, Speyer, and Ulm. Since this catalog is limited to incunabula in the Basel University Library collection, the new volume cannot be seen as a direct continuation of the volume published in 1998.

Although the author is to be commended for his tireless work, the user will find the organization and presentation of the material somewhat perplexing in terms of accessibility. Several recently published catalogs have opted to arrange the titles of works alphabetically under the author’s name or title, but this catalog does not, which makes searching for individual titles difficult. The catalog includes information which can already be found in the major incunabula catalogs, such as the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW) and the catalog of the Bavarian State Library (BSB-Ink.). Oddly, the important Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTA) of the British Library is not even mentioned. The Basel catalog offers several indexes and concordances, but the user misses an index for provenance, so crucial to understanding the origins, history, and influence of the works. However, its greatest weakness is the lack of a history and description of the collection as a whole, which would offer insight into the nature and unique qualities of the Basel incunabula. One hopes this oversight will be addressed in a later volume. [er/akb]

Bibliographien und Kataloge der Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek zu Weimar [Bibliographies and Catalogs of the Duchess Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar]. Ed. Michael Knoche for the Klassik-Stiftung Weimar, Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 25 cm. [07-2-271]

Die Inkunabeln [Incunabula]. Ed. Eva Raffel. 2007. 319, [14] p. ill. ISBN 978-3-447-05505-5: EUR 78

Welt der Wiegendrucke: die ersten gedruckten Bücher der Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek Weimar [The World of Incunabula: The First Printed Books in the Duchess Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar]. Ed. Eva Raffel for the Klassik-Stiftung Weimar. Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang, 2007. 159 p. ill. 24 cm. ISBN 978-3-7338-0360-5: EUR 19.90 [07-2-272]

This catalog of the incunabula holdings of the Duchess Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar was published just three years after a fire destroyed a number of items from the library’s older holdings in 2004. The cataloging work was done at the Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe using the online database of German incunabula holdings, INKA, located in Tübingen (http://www.inka.uni-tuebingen ). The project involved inputting the cataloging into the INKA database, thus forming a basis for the printed catalog.

The holdings of the Anna-Amalia Library are the result of collecting activities for the Weimar ducal library from the 17th century up to the first quarter of the 20th century. Reflecting the different interests of various collectors, the holdings are quite diverse. The printed catalog describes 427 incunabula titles contained in 320 volumes, and includes 87 “post-incunabula” (printed items dating from 1501-1520), which are bound with the incunabula volumes. Almost half of the collection is from the late, especially productive period of the 1490s. The collection also includes two block books and four unique specimens: three titles from early Leipzig printers, (including a Latin grammar and an edition of Aristotle’s Parva naturalia), and one from Nuremberg, the Dracole Waida, a Southern German version of the Dracula legend. Also significant are 15 titles in Greek (language and script), about half of which are from the Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius.

The cataloging structure used by the editor closely follows the standard model for recording German incunabula holdings, especially as practiced for titles recorded in the INKA database. The editor has found a good balance between a brief presentation of the content and the necessary descriptive detail. Special weight is given to copy-specific information, such as notation of woodcuts, printer’s marks, unusual print conditions, pagination peculiarities, and former shelf-marks. Thanks to the collaboration of Konrad von Rabenau, a leading expert on bindings, there is also very detailed description of the physical bindings. Unlike other royal libraries in which collections were often rebound in the 18th and 19th centuries, almost half the volumes of the Weimar collection retain their contemporary bindings. The bibliographical references are limited to only the most important catalogs and indexes.

The catalog entries are arranged in a single, numbered listing alphabetically by author or standardized title. Additional access is provided by a general index, three special indexes (printers and publishers; and binders and bindings), and three concordances (binding literature, older and newer shelf marks, and incunabula indexes). The provenance index is especially useful in that it provides the user with an overview of all previous institutional and personal owners, as well as related literature. This is especially helpful in reconstructions of former book collections. The general index is useful mainly for access via editors and other secondary contributors, and for accessing multiple titles printed together (and thus lacking an individual entry in the main alphabetical list). However, since it also repeats the author and title entries of the main catalog, much of it is unnecessary repetition. For collective volumes (i.e., separately printed titles subsequently bound together) each title is given its own entry in the catalog with a reference back to the catalog number of the first entered title from the volume. However, there is no information on the order in which the titles are physically bound together in the library’s collection, which would be helpful for anyone interested in reconstructing collection relationships. The main alphabetical list also includes individual entries for the 87 post-incunabula titles bound within the incunabula volumes. This results in a catalog that is a mixture of holding types, and it might have been preferable to have described these titles on the entry for the first incunabula with which they are bound, thereby limiting the main sequence to the true incunabula. Although there are occasional other inaccuracies and inconsistencies, the editor has set new standards (particularly in the technical area via the use of the INKA database) for cataloging of incunabula collections.

In addition to directing the work on this catalog, Eva Raffel also edited the catalog for an exhibition of the library’s most important incunabula holdings held in the Anna-Amalia Library’s restored Renaissance Hall in 2007. With 60 items from the exhibition, the catalog provides a highly informative survey of all aspects of early printing and of scholarly access to printed materials from the period. Among the notable items illustrated in the exhibition catalog are two block books, a manuscript (for comparison purposes), numerous bindings (and rubbings from bindings), two bookmarks, and even a 20th-century publication from the Cranach Press imitating an early printed book. Although some of the collection’s remarkable objects were illustrated in the descriptive catalog, the large number of additional color illustrations from the exhibition serve as a beautiful supplement to the descriptions of the scholarly catalog. [jg/jc]

Druckschriften des 16. Jahrhunderts: ein Bestandsverzeichnis der Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Museums mit Kurzbiografien der Autoren, Künstler und Drucker [16th-Century Imprints: A Catalog of the Library of the Deutsches Historisches Museum with Brief Biographies of the Authors, Artists, and Printers]. Ed. Regine Bleiss and Claudia Frank for the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, 2006. 1 CD-ROM + 1 supplement (11 p. ill.). EUR 19.95 [07-1-004]

The German Historical Museum, formerly known as the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte [Museum of German History], was founded in Berlin in 1952 and housed in the Berliner Zeughaus, or Arsenal. The Museum has its own library, and over the years, its collections have grown to more than 200,000 volumes. Among these volumes are 660 16th-century imprints, which are described in the present volume.

The Library’s thematic focus is historiography, specifically the writing of German history. It collects current literature on German history, but also holds a rare-book collection of older imprints, at present comprising some 10,000 volumes. The 16th-century volumes described here cover a wide spectrum of subjects, documenting the historical, social, religious and humanistic movements of the 16th century.

Imprints relating to the Reformation form the core of the 16th-century collection. There are 156 books by or about Martin Luther, works of the Counter-Reformation such as the Sieben Köpfe Martin Luthers by Johannes Cochlaeus, and works by such authors as Erasmus, Ulrich von Hutten, Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Reuchlin, and Hans Sachs. Works from the spheres of medicine, natural science, geography, and architecture are also present, such as the Unterweisung der Messung by Albrecht Dürer.

The CD-ROM format allows the inclusion of title-page images as well as text. The CD-ROM installs automatically and is quite simple to use. The visual layout is easy to understand: on the left side of the screen, a number of indexes are available to click on; the right-hand side of the screen shows the hits resulting from choosing a particular heading in an index. Images can be enlarged or reduced in size by a simple click. Colored icons identify links to biographical information.

The CD-ROM is searchable in a variety of ways: personal names, printing towns, year of publication, subject index. The subject index is organized into several topical groups that reflect the permanent exhibitions of the Museum: politics of the German Reich and the individual states; economic and social conditions; military history; church and state; history of the Reformation (Protestant publications predominate over Catholic ones); theology; and humanism.

The bibliographic descriptions in the catalog resulted from autopsy of each book. Duplicate copies are not noted, so that it is not exactly clear whether the number 660 refers to the number of titles in the 16th-century collection, or the number of volumes. Although the entries are clear and well presented, scholars interested in every aspect of rare books will regret that the software does not allow for more specialized searches, such as for the presence of initials, engraved title pages, or title pages in red and black. Combined searches are likewise not available. In this respect, the CD-ROM suffers in comparison to the Short-title catalogue [sic] der Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts im Bestand der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz. It would also have been helpful to offer the ability to search by the ID numbers used in the Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des XVI. Jahrhunderts (VD 16). In general, and especially for less-specialized users, this is a well-constructed and very useful product. [cb/crc]

Katalog der Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts in der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek: Wien NB 16 [Catalog of 16th-Century Imprints in the Austrian National Library: Vienna NB 16]. Gedeon Borsa. Baden-Baden: Körner. 25 cm. (Bibliotheca bibliographica Aureliana, ...). [07-1-005]

Vol. 1. Deutsches Sprachgebiet, A-Biber [German-Speaking Area, ...]. 2007. 396 p. ill. (..., 212). ISBN 978-3-87320-712-7: EUR 140

Now for the first time a published catalog of the 16th-century German imprints in the Austrian National Library is being made available. This is a welcome and longawaited event. The Austrian National Library possesses a significant collection of early books, in particular from German-speaking Europe, but up until this point, the lack of satisfactory cataloging had made this collection difficult to access. The Austrian National Library has been slower than most of the major national libraries to undertake full cataloging of its early imprints. Significant catalogs of special parts of the collection have appeared, e.g., for illuminated manuscripts and incunabula, but not until now has a catalog of all the Library’s 16th-century German imprints been available. Gratitude is due to Gedeon Borsa, who has worked tirelessly on the cataloging of this collection. He counts 42,000 16th-century imprints in the Library’s collection, of which 24,000 are in German. The first volume of this catalog, containing the alphabet from A to Biber, contains 1,739 entries.

The catalog, identified by the abbreviation Wien NB 16, is modeled on the Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des XVI Jahrhunderts, widely known as VD 16. The entries are formatted similarly, ordered by author’s name or (for anonyma) by uniform title. It is bothersome that editions of the same work are not listed in chronological order, but rather in numerical order according to the identifying number used in the VD 16. In long lists of a prolific author’s works (Aristotle, for example), it is difficult to locate a specific known edition. It is also unfortunate that cross-references to other forms of an author’s name are not included. The language of the catalog is Latin, and non-German authors are listed under Latinized forms of their names. Mr. Borsa personally examined each of the imprints described here.

In the interest of moving the cataloging project along at good speed, the entries have been kept quite brief. This is understandable, but rather frustrating for the user interested in more information. It is a pity that more space was not devoted at least to those items uniquely held by the Austrian National Library. Each entry gives author, title, and imprint, and for the sake of greater legibility, abbreviations appearing in the source are spelled out. Each book’s bibliographical format (folio, quarto, octavo) is given along with the number of leaves; a full collation is not attempted.

It is also regrettable that so little information is provided in the prefatory matter about the project’s history and intended scope. It is not clear whether we can expect to see a further catalog that covers the Library’s 16th-century imprints of non-German provenance. It is also a pity, though understandable in terms of the additional effort that would have been required, that copy-specific information had to be excluded. The viability of this type of printed catalog in an age of increasing digitization is also open to question. An online version of this publication with links to the existing entries in the VD 16 database might be much more useful. Still, the catalog makes an important but previously inaccessible collection more accessible, and represents an enormous commitment of time and energy by one dedicated scholar. As such, it deserves our entire respect. [cb/crc]

Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et gens du livre à Paris, 1701-1789 [Dictionary of Printers, Booksellers, and the Book Trade in Paris, 1701-1789]. Ed. Frédéric Barbier, Sabine Juratic, and Annick Mellerio. Genève: Librairie Droz. 23 cm. (Ecole pratique des hautes études, sciences historiques et philologiques, VI, Histoire et civilisation du livre, ...).

Vol. 1. A-C. 2007. 688 p. ( ... , 30). ISBN 9782600013369: EUR 101.70

An RREA Original Review by Sue Waterman (Johns Hopkins University)

This inventory of the Parisian book trade during the 18th century is an ambitious bibliographic undertaking. The present volume is the first in a projected set that will effectively cover the range of book professionals (gens du livre) employed and operating in the capital in the years preceding the Revolution. Paris held a disproportionately high number of people employed in the book trade relative to the rest of the country, since the authorities granted a large majority of the limited number of privileges to printers in the capital, where they could be easily overseen and controlled. In addition, Parisians had a high level of literacy during the 18th century, and the city witnessed the establishment and growth of institutions, theaters, and courts–enterprises that attracted more and more educated people. At the same time, Paris attracted foreign visitors in large numbers, so that it became an important center of book production and consumption.

The burgeoning field of the history of the book has by now engendered many studies of the French book trade, including studies limited to the 18th century. However, the actors themselves, the individuals involved in the production and distribution of books, have been nearly absent for the most part, other than in studies done on individual printers and publishers. The goal of the authors of this work, as laid out in the informative introduction to the inventory itself, is to bring all of these actors to light and thus to provide the necessary background for a complete picture of the chaîne du livre [circuit of books], from fabrication to distribution to consumption.

This work draws on several sources for its information: two theses written under the direction of Henri-Jean Martin on 18th-century printers and booksellers, and on the Archives nationales, Archives de Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Préfecture de Paris, and several Parisian libraries, including the Cabinet de manuscrits at the Bibliothèque nationale. The references to sources in each inventory entry include manuscript as well as printed primary sources and bibliographies of secondary sources.

The 502 individual entries in this bio-bibliography are arranged alphabetically by name of the bookseller, printer, book peddler (colporteur), type-founder, or other category of book professional, in all cases including both legitimate and clandestine tradesmen. The introduction gives a good description of each of these categories of book professional.

The entries vary in length and depth, according to various factors, including the relative importance of the individuals and the availability of information on them. After the name and professional category of each person, the entries detail (1) dates and places of birth and death; names of father, mother, children, and other family members; (2) professional activities, including addresses of businesses, privileges granted, specific titles printed, names of personnel employed, as well as information on what the individual printed, including specific titles; equipment, employee positions, and associated booksellers; and what became of the establishment after the individual’s death, (3) other activities (e.g., religious and political), social and professional connections, taxes paid, and size of income; and (4) a bibliography as described above.

Very useful, after the inventory itself, is a complete listing of all these references, including manuscript collections by institution and printed sources alphabetically by author. A single, selective index that follows the inventory includes names of people other than printers and book professionals; booksellers’ and printers’ signs (for example, Au Livre d’or [At the Golden Book]); place names; and titles of anonymous works, collective works with more than three authors, and periodicals.

Since the individual entries in this dictionary include information about specific book titles and authors associated with the printers and booksellers, one hopes that, once the entire work is completed through “Z,” there will be a cumulative index of book titles and authors, so that a researcher can associate a writer or a book with all its appropriate gens du livre. It would also be extremely useful to include indexes of streets in Paris, so that one could map the book trade, and of roles in the trade (printers, publishers, peddlers, etc.), so that one could get a more complete picture of each profession. In addition, illustrations of important or popular books of the period would add greatly to the value of this resource.

A print inventory in the age of online databases needs to have extremely robust indexing and graphic features to make it sufficiently useful to be worth the investment in money and space for a library, not to mention the researcher’s time. We can only hope that the authors and editors will add tools as the subsequent volumes of this set are published. In the meantime, it provides a new way of viewing 18th-century book production and begins to fill in the picture of literary Paris before the Revolution.

Le edizioni italiane del XVI secolo: censimento nazionale [Italian Publications of the 16th Century: National Inventory]. Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni Bibliografiche. Roma. 31 cm. Online edition = EDIT 16: http://edit16.iccu.sbn.it. ISBN 88-7107-010-0 (Editrice Bibliografica, Viale Vittorio Veneto 24, I-20124 Milano) [07-1-006]

Vol. 5. D. 2005. xxxi, 362 p. [25] leaves. ill. ISBN 88-7107-113-1: EUR 100

Begun some 20 years ago, this comprehensive catalog of Italian publications of the 16th century, including those in Italian published outside Italy, has experienced a long intermittent publication history. Ten years elapsed between the appearances of volumes 4 (1996) and 5 (2005).

Volume 5 includes 2,753 sequentially numbered entries, all beginning with the letter D. Some 1,335 libraries, including the Vatican Library, are represented in the current listings, and the entries are more detailed than in earlier volumes. Indexes include: (1) persons treated and name variants; (2) printers, publishers, and book dealers. There is also a concordance linking the sequential number and the title identification number in the database. There are 25 reproductions, chiefly of title pages.

EDIT 16 (the database version of Le edizioni italiane del XVI secolo) contains approximately 60,000 entries of varying completeness and complexity. Basic and advanced search functions are available for author, title, edition, masthead, extent and format, publisher/ printer, place, printers’ marks, year of publication, fingerprint, country of publication, language, libraries, and identification number. The Web-accessible catalog can be searched at http://edit16.iccu.sbn.it/web_iccu/imain.htm [visited 2010-02-15]. [sh/jb]

Le edizioni del XVII secolo della Provincia dei Cappuccini di Messina [Publications of the 17th Century Held in Libraries of the Province of the Capuchins of Messina]. Fiorenzo Fiore and Giuseppe Lipari. Messina: Sicania. 21 cm. (Città e territorio, ...). [07-1-008]

1. La Biblioteca Provinciale [The Main Provincial Library]. 3 vols. 2003. 1,617 p. ill. (..., 9). ISBN 88-7268-099-9: EUR 115

The current catalog contains an alphabetical list of mostly Italian titles printed between 1601 and 1700, held in the main library of the Capuchin province of Messina, Italy. The entries include author, corporation, or title; brief title with volume number, location, publisher/printer, and year of publication; the diplomatic title description retaining typographical peculiarities and indication of line breaks; bibliographic format, collation, typographical details, height and width measurements, and binding; information about the specific copy (provenance and previous owners); fingerprint; and call number.

Indexes include (1) names (author, co-author and other participants, person to whom dedicated, and corporate entities); (2) publishers, printers, and book dealers; (3) sites, thereby providing an overview of the origin of the publications; (4) a chronological listing; (5) provenance divided by Capuchin monasteries and other libraries; (6) names of owners. Unfortunately, there is no subject index. [sh/jb]

Catalogo delle edizioni messinesi dei secoli XV–XVIII [Catalog of Messina Publications of the 15th to the 18th Centuries]. Maria Teresia Rodriquez on behalf of the Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria Messina. Palermo: Regione Siciliana, Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e Ambientali e della Pubblica Istruzione, 1997. 334, [16] p. ill. 24 cm. (Sicilia/biblioteche, 43). (Biblioteca Regionale Sicilia, Via Primo Settembre 117, I-98122 Messina) [07-1-009]

This catalog contains 706 sequentially numbered entries listing titles published in the province of Messina from the 15th to the end of the 18th centuries. Accordingly, the work is divided into four parts by century, with entries appearing in alphabetical order within each section. The number of entries for the 18th century is lower than one would expect, a situation accounted for by the consequences of the Spanish repression after the revolts that occurred between 1674 and 1678, the devastation of Messina by the plague in 1740, and an earthquake in 1783.

Entry headings consist of the entry number, the call number, and the author or originator. Additional information follows, including the complete title, generally without indications of line breaks; bibliographic format; pagination; and call number (as well as unnumbered items). Annotations provide title-specific details (e.g., provenance), information on holding libraries, and fingerprint. An index lists persons involved in originator works and the titles of those works, printers, and publishers, with alphabetical and chronological versions. Another index provides the names of persons who dedicated works and the names of those who were the recipients of the dedication.

The catalog fails to include some well-known Italian poets, but includes other lesserknown writers, such as Scipione Errico, a native of Messina. In addition, the catalog fails to include relevant titles from the collections of other libraries. [sh/jb]

Le edizioni veneziane del Seicento: censimento [Venetian Publications of the 17th Century: An Inventory]. Ed. Caterina Griffante. 2 vols. Venice: Regione del Veneto; Milano. Editrice Bibliografica. xl, 463, vii, 534 p. 30 cm. (Grandi opere, 10). ISBN 88-7075-596-7 (vol. 1): EUR 85; ISBN 88-7075-623-8 (vol. 2): EUR 95 [07-1-010]

Only a few bibliographies and catalogs of Italian publications of the 17th century are in print, among them the bibliography published by Pantanida, Diotallevi, and Livraghi and various library catalogs of local holdings.

Venice was an important publishing location in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the Le edizioni veneziane del Seicento is an attempt to chronicle the production of this major publishing city between the years 1601-1700. In all, close to 20,000 titles are listed in the sequentially numbered entries. With an aim toward comprehensiveness, numerous library catalogs were consulted, and all types of literature were included. The major disadvantage is that few primary sources were consulted directly; the bibliographic entries are based mostly on secondary sources.

The entries follow Italian cataloging rules and are structured as follows: title in bold typeface, author/originator or first word of the title; title in modern orthography and with many short titles containing ellipses. On a new line, one finds the masthead, including location and printer/publisher, date of publication, volume number and format; both pagination and fingerprints are omitted. On a following line one finds information on the bibliographies, catalogs, and libraries consulted.

There are two indexes, found in the appendix to volume 2. The more comprehensive one covers printers and publishers, chronologically listing titles within a year alphabetically by author together with the short title. The second index contains the names of persons, with cross references from alternate names of persons and corporations. [sh/jb]

Medievistica del Novecento: recensioni e note di lettura [Medieval Publications of the Twentieth Century: Reviews and Readers’ Notes]. Giovanni Tabacco. Ed. Paola Guglielmotti. 2 vols. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2007. xxix, 778 p. 24 cm. (Reti medievali. E-book, Monografie, 5). ISBN 9788884536419: EUR 36.70 (Electronic edition also available at: http://digital.casalini.it/9788884536426)

An RREA Original Review by Thomas M. Izbicki (Rutgers University)

The late Giovanni Tabacco, a distinguished Italian historian, wrote many book reviews over a long career (1951-1999). Paola Guglielmotti has collected and published them as a two-volume book, arranged chronologically. Following a brief introduction by the editor, the first volume covers the years 1951-1980; the second volume covers 19811999, and then concludes with an appendix of book notes published in Bolletino storicobibliografico subalpino [Historical-Bibliographical Bulletin of the Subalpine Region] and an index of authors. In the index, the authors or editors of books reviewed are noted in bold type, while other mentions of authors are in the normal typeface of the book. These reviews represent wide interests and a command of multiple languages.

This collection is available online from Casalini Libri, as well as in print. The electronic version brings up a list of years. The user clicks on a year to see a pdf file of the reviews published during that period.

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