AB – Bibliographies and Catalogs

2009/2010

AB - Bibliographies and Catalogs

Bibliothek Helmut Reich: ein Inventar [The Helmut Reich Library: An Inventory]. Timm Zenner. Garding: Cicero-Presse, 2010. xiii, 394 p. 27 cm. (Sammlungskataloge / Cicero-Presse, Verlag und Antiquariat, 17). ISBN 978- 3-89120-022-3: EUR 48

In 2005 Timm Zenner moved his antiquarian book business from Morsum on the island of Sylt to Kirchspiel Garding, a village on the coast of North Friesland. Zenner’s 16 previous antiquarian catalogs were published from 1985 to 2005 under the series title Bibliographien, Werkverzeichnisse, Enzyklopädien [Bibliographies, Catalogues raisonnés, Encyclopedias], reflecting his strong interest in antiquarian bibliographical works, reference materials, and encyclopedias. His 17th catalog is devoted to the library of Helmut Reich.

Helmut Reich (1937-2000) was director of the Bremen Theater Library from 1972 to 1996 and was also a passionate book collector. Much like his older colleague Abraham Horodisch, the founder of Erasmus Boekhandel (see 75 Jahre Erasmus Boekhandel, RREA 15/16:58), Reich was extremely interested in collecting “books about books.” He was a co-author of a 1977 monograph on the book arts in Bremen, and he cataloged the materials in the Gutenberg-Museum in Mainz. Reich’s interest in bibliographies almost inevitably led him to Zenner’s shop, and the two men forged a friendship that lasted until Reich’s death. Thus it was no accident that Zenner acquired Reich’s library, which he presents here in an elegantly printed catalog.

The catalog lists some 2,200 titles, with extensive annotations. It is divided into two major parts: (1) The Bibliographic Library (p. 3-314) and (2) The Literary Library (p. 315-375). The first part is divided into 14 sections, covering topics such as bibliographies, bibliophiles, and book bindings. The second part has nine sections, ranging from “Erotica and Sexology” to “Literature and Literary History” to "Varia" and an afterword. We can look forward to more of Zenner’s catalogs of materials in individual collections, which might even include some bibliographic rarities. [sh/sas]

Die lateinischen Handschriften aus dem Augustiner-Chorherrenstift Eberhardsklausen in der Stadtbibliothek Trier [Latin Manuscripts from the Augustinian Monastery Eberhardsklausen in the Trier City Library]. Kurt Heydeck and Giuliano Staccioli. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 25 cm. (Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek zu Trier, ...).

Pt. 1. 2007. xli, 272 p. ill. (... , n.s., 2). ISBN 978-3-447-05372-3: EUR 58

With the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a new catalog of the medieval manuscripts held in the Trier City Library has been underway since 1987 (replacing the previously authoritative Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek zu Trier [Descriptive Catalog of the Manuscripts in the Trier City Library] (Trier, 1888- 1931). The first volume of the new catalog appeared in 1996 as Die deutschen und niederländischen Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek Trier bis 1600 [German and Dutch Manuscripts to 1600 in the Trier City Library]. The Latin manuscripts, numbering some 1,435 codices, are now being cataloged. As the first installment, the volume under review describes 69 of the 184 Latin manuscripts from the Eberhardsklausen (today: Klausen) monastery (founded in 1456).

This rich collection is the result of the seminary members' determined collecting effort in the second half of the 15th century. Manuscripts described in this volume date largely from this period, and at least 33 of them were produced in the Eberhardsklausen scriptorium.

An introduction offers a concise survey of the history of the collection. Additional essays cover scribes and book bindings. The manuscripts contain mostly theological texts: biblical commentaries, patristic texts, tracts and sermons devoted to edification and moral theology, with a characteristically high number of works by Augustine and other works attributed to him.

The catalog entries are distinguished by a wealth of codicological information and content description. Particularly noteworthy are the detailed descriptions of manuscript waste reused in book bindings. Indexes of hymns, verses, initials, persons, places, and subjects complete the volume. The catalog provides a basis for further research on the history of books, libraries, and textual transmission and demonstrates that in-depth cataloging of late medieval manuscripts is an exceedingly worthwhile endeavor. [ch/rc]

Katalog der mittelalterlichen Handschriften des Klosters Wettingen: Katalog der mittelalterlichen Handschriften in Aarau, Laufenburg, Lenzburg, Rheinfelden und Zofingen [Catalog of the Medieval Manuscripts of the Wettingen Monastery: Catalog of the Medieval Manuscripts in Aarau, Laufenburg, Lenzburg, Rheinfelden, and Zofingen]. Charlotte Bretscher-Gisiger and Rudolf Gamper. Dietikon: Urs-Graf-Verlag, 2009. 272 p. ill. 31 cm. ISBN 978-3-85951-271-9: SFr. 148, EUR 100

Together with a previous volume, Katalog der mittelalterlichen Handschriften der Klöster Muri und Hermetschwil (see RREA 12:3), this catalog provides information about littleknown holdings of medieval codices in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland, making use of modern bibliographic criteria. The largest portion of the catalog is devoted to descriptions of the Wettingen manuscripts, three of which are kept in the state archive of the Canton, with an additional 54 in the Aargau Cantonal Library. A further 19 manuscripts are held in institutions in Aarau, Laufenburg, Lenzburg, Rheinfelden, and Zofingen.

The history of the Wettingen monastery and its book culture is the focus of the extensive introduction to the volume, which also includes numerous color photographs showing the most significant illustrated pages of the Wettingen codices, as well as pages from nine of the 19 manuscripts in various institutions, including the two oldest items from the 8th and 9th centuries. Two of the Wettingen manuscripts, currently held in the municipal library of Zofingen, have been digitized and are available at http://www.ecodices. unifr.ch/de/description/zos/pa0032, with brief versions of the descriptions in this catalog. Production of books at the monastery was documented in 1273 by the monk Johannes von Straßburg, who listed titles written by himself and by other authors. His valuable resource has been newly edited and included in this volume. Books produced at the monastery, as well as donated to it, increased the holdings into the late medieval period. Another hand-written source details the collection at about 1800 and is also printed here.

Each item is described using the same schema as in the earlier volume: quires and foliation; arrangement and decoration, along with details about the script and illustrations; corrections and addenda; binding; provenance; owners; and bibliography. In addition, a clear description is given of each item’s contents, including headings, initial and closing text portions, and references to printed versions and surveys. Indexes of authors, names, places and subjects, and initial words close the volume. [ch/nb]

Inkunabel-Census der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle (Saale) [Incunabula Census of the University and State Library of Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle (Saale)]. Marie-Christine Henning. Halle (Saale): Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 2009. xvi, 499 p. ill. 21 cm. (Schriften zum Bibliotheks- und Büchereiwesen in Sachsen-Anhalt, 92). ISBN 978-3-86829-185-8: EUR 50

The title already robs the reader of the hope that this contribution from the University and State library in Halle will reduce the considerable uncharted territory in the map of incunabula collections held by eastern German libraries. One can expect no more than what the title promises: a simple bibliographic inventory. This is clearly insufficient for the requirements of the modern cataloging of incunabula.

In their prefatory remarks neither the director of the Halle library, Heiner Schnelling nor the cataloger Marie-Christine Henning offers any justification for the publication of this volume. The only motivation appears to be to supplement the available information prepared by the Bavarian State Library for the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue with the Halle shelf marks, several reproductions, and a few introductory remarks, and then to market the volume as an "incunabula catalog" supposedly worth more than what the ISTC makes available on the Internet (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html).

The volume begins with a meager survey and an abbreviated history of the collection followed by dry statistical details concerning the subject matter and printers of the Halle incunabula, with a few comments regarding particular, arbitrarily chosen, editions.

The descriptions of the incunabula unnecessarily take up the bulk of the volume, being simply extracted from the ISTC data as reported to and developed in Munich and readily available and searchable on the Internet. Any value gained by adding the Halle shelf marks to the ISTC data is reduced by the absence of a continuous list of shelf marks, by means of which one could reconstruct the binding of separate incunabula into a single volume.

Even the 29 reproductions found in an appendix, representing 19 incunabula, appear to be more or less randomly chosen. The indexes and concordance lists also leave something to be desired. The index of printers, publishers, and places of publication is organized by name of the printer or publisher instead of an arrangement by place under which rubric printers and publishers could then be listed, thus facilitating an initial overview.

It does not take a prophet to predict that those responsible for the appearance of this census will necessitate more work for their colleagues at the Halle library, given the number of questions to which it will lead. With the publication of this volume, the library has not only wasted personnel and material resources but also squandered an opportunity to raise the profile of its own rich collection. [jg/rc]

Die Inkunabeln in Rudolstädter Bibliotheken [Incunabula Census of the University and State Library of Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle (Saale)]. Marie-Christine Henning. Halle (Saale): Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 2009. xvi, 499 p. ill. 21 cm. (Schriften zum Bibliotheks- und Büchereiwesen in Sachsen-Anhalt, 92). ISBN 978-3-86829-185-8: EUR 50

The author previously published a two-volume bibliography of the Rudolstadt Library’s holdings of works by or about Martin Luther. The first - Die Lutherdrucke des 16. Jahrhunderts in Rudolstädter Bibliotheken [Luther-Related Works of the 16th Century] appeared in 1998 (see IFB 98-3/4-228) and the second - Die Lutherdrucke von 1601 bis 1800 in Rudolstädter Bibliotheken in 2003 (see RREA 9:61). The work reviewed here is a catalog of all 131 incunabula held in various libraries and archives in Rudolstadt, Germany. Of these, the lion’s share (125 entries) is from the Historische Bibliothek der Stadt Rudolstadt [Historical Library of the City of Rudolstadt]. The entries for each title provide general data on the edition, as well as copy-specific information and alphabetically arranged lists of reference works. The entries, thankfully, also include identification numbers from the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke [Union Catalog of Incunabula], the Bavarian State Library’s incunabula catalog BSB-Ink (http://www. bsb-muenchen.de/Inkunabelkatalog-BSB-Ink.181.0.html), and the Einbanddatenbank (http://www.hist-einband.de), a digital databank of rubbings of book bindings of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The descriptions of each title are quite extensive. However they unnecessarily repeat data already provided in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke and in the catalogs of the British Museum and the Bavarian State Library. It would have been sufficient to simply note copy-specific differences in such cases. On the other hand one wishes that more in-depth historical background information had been included. The brief introduction provides little specific information about the development of the collections. One of the appendixes does provide a chronological list of previous owners, but a detailed provenance index is lacking. The catalog concludes with 16 black-and-white illustrations, some in a very small format. [er/jc]

Inkunabelkatalog der Zentralbibliothek Zürich [Incunabula Catalog of the Zürich Central Library]. Ed. Christian Scheidegger. 2 vols. Baden-Baden: Koerner. 747, xxxi p. ill. 25 cm. (Bibliotheka bibliographica Aureliana, 220, 223). ISBN 978- 3-87320-720-2 (vol. 1): EUR 140; ISBN 978-3-87320-723-3 (vol. 2): EUR 160

The Zentralbibliothek Zürich comprises the Canton, City, and University Libraries of Zürich under one roof, making it one of the largest libraries in Switzerland. It has existed in the building it now occupies since 1917, having inherited its considerable holdings from various precursor libraries, including the old City Library (founded in 1629) and the Canton Library (founded in 1835). With its 1,562 incunabula (books printed before 1501), it is the repository for the second largest collection of incunabula in Switzerland after the University Library of Basel, which has twice as many (see RREA 13:5). The Zürich library’s incunabula holdings have now been documented in this excellent two-volume catalog.

Reflecting the library’s long history, its incunabula holdings have come to it from a number of sources, including monastery libraries, church libraries, specialized libraries for law and medicine, and important private collections. The introduction to the catalog provides a detailed history of the books and gives an overview of their content. Theology is most heavily represented (with 615 works), followed by languages and literature (358), then canon and civil law (264), with the remaining works divided among philosophy, medicine, natural sciences, encyclopedias, and others. There are twelve Greek and eleven Hebrew incunabula. The catalog lists all of the incunabula individually, providing concise yet detailed summaries about the content of each and omitting information that can be found in the online Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW), a union catalog of incunabula. Access to the works is facilitated by good indexes and concordances. The volumes are enhanced by black-and-white and color illustrations. All in all, it is hard to imagine a better guidebook to the Zürich incunabula than this fine catalog. [er/akb]

Als die Lettern laufen lernten: Medienwandel im 15. Jahrhundert; Inkunabeln aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München [When Letters Learned to Move: Media Changes in the 15th Century. Incunabula in the Bavarian State Library in Munich]. Ed. Bettina Wagner. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2009. 240 p. ill. 29 cm. (Ausstellungskataloge/Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, 81). ISBN 978-3-89500-699-9: EUR 19.90

Just as "media changes" are taking place today in the burgeoning digital era, in the 15th century there was an evolution from hand-written manuscripts to print. The holdings of the Bavarian State Library include a number of spectacular, even unique pieces that bear witness to this development. This catalog of an extraordinary 2009 exhibit, with its carefully chosen 75 incunabula, including 10 on parchment and19 broadsheets; four woodblock prints; and eight 15th-century manuscripts - from a total collection of about 9,700, the best in the world - masterfully illustrates and explains the significance of the general media upheaval on the one hand and the unique features of each item on the other.

The core of the German-English catalog is constituted by descriptions of the exhibit pieces, which exemplify the host of technical innovations that accompanied the invention of movable type and the various stages of the production and distribution of printed books. There is recognition as well that handwritten manuscripts remained important, influencing printing and design.

In addition to an introductory survey "From Experiment to Mass Production", the catalog includes an exceptionally useful German-English glossary, a bibliography of cited literature, a name index (it would have been more helpful to have had separate sections for persons according to their area of activity), a shelf-mark list, several concordances, and a list of author abbreviations and portraits. Particularly impressive is the wealth of excellent illustrations: each exhibit object is presented in at least one whole-page color picture. All in all, this is an estimable publication that does justice to the preeminent significance of the Munich incunabla holdings. [jg/nb]

Wunderbare Bücherwelten: moderne Druckkunst aus Hamburg; eine Ausstellung... [Wonderful Book Worlds: Modern Printing Art in Hamburg. An Exhibit]. Johannes Pommeranz. Ed. Christine Kupper. Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2010. 207 p. ill. 28 cm. ISBN 978-3-936688-42-9: EUR 36.80

The library of the Germanic National Museum has impressive holdings of the products of 20th-century German hand presses, assembled since the 1960s by successive directors Elisabeth Rückert and Eduard Isphording. Isphording has published two richly illustrated catalogs of some of these holdings, DraufSichten for prints before 1945 (see RREA 11:9), and SeitenAnsichten for those from the latter half of the 20th century (see RREA 6:12). His successor Johannes Pommeranz has now produced a volume on modern printing art in the city of Hamburg and its surroundings, in honor of Isphording on his 75th birthday.

This work is a catalog of an exhibit in the Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg, mounted from December 10, 2009 to April 11, 2010. The introduction discusses the history of book art in 20th-century Hamburg, touching briefly on other aspects as well, such as the state of research on the topic, binding design, bibliophilic organizations in the region, and important presses and publishers. It closes with an overview of book art today. The actual catalog consists of two parts, the first covering 26 examples of book art before 1945, and the second 54 books produced after 1945. Each item is presented on a double-page spread, with a bibliographic description at the left, along with a list of secondary literature and an interpretive description of the object; at the right is a photograph (or several) of a representative page from the book. A bibliography lists all the cited references as well as other secondary literature. There is also a personal name index. It would have been helpful to have included an index of presses and publishers, as well.

This impressive publication is a welcome addition to the series of similarly well-done catalogs of other collections in the library of the Germanic National Museum. [sh/nb]

Jiddische Bücher aus Berlin (1918-1936): Titel, Personen, Verlage [Yiddish Books from Berlin (1918-1936): Titles, Persons, Publishers]. Maria Kühn-Ludewig. 2d, expanded ed. Nümbrecht: Kirsch-Verlag, 2008. 255 p. ill. 25cm. ISBN 978-3-933586-56-8: EUR 24.50

The first edition of this work, which expands upon an earlier bibliography of Jewish publishing in the Weimar Republic, appeared in 2006. The second edition has been greatly enlarged and amended. In the inter-war period, Berlin was an important center for Yiddish language book publishing. The majority of titles were published by small presses, with some self-publication. The subject matter was split pretty evenly between belles-lettres (including children’s literature) and technical subjects. About a quarter of the titles were translations, half of them from German and the rest from other languages.

The main section of the book lists 359 numbered titles and includes library holdings information, wherever available. Some titles have no attested copies, and it is not always clear whether they were actually published or only announced via advance notices. The next two sections provide biographical information about the persons involved and about publishing houses and print shops. A bibliography and index round out the volume. Journals and newspapers have been well documented in Marion Neiss’ excellent study, Presse im Transit: jiddische Zeitungen und Zeitschriften in Berlin von 1919 bis 1925 (see RREA 9:10). [sh/as]

Algemene bibliografie van publicaties uitgegeven in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden: deel I: periode 1792-1799; deel II: periode 1792-1829 (niet gedateerd) [General Bibliography of Materials Published in the Southern Low Countries. Part I: 1792-1799; Part II: 1792-1829 (undated)]. Jacques Devolder. 2 vols. Gent: Academia Press, 2003. 837 p. 29 cm. ISBN 90-382-0407-8: EUR 50

The author provides us with a retrospective national bibliography of Belgium for the years 1792-1829, before Belgium became an independent nation in 1830. Two late 19th-century bibliographies covered the first 50 years of the state of Belgium, so this title is a new and significant contribution to the bibliographic history of the southern Low Countries. It is an expansion of the author’s earlier work that covered the years 1800-1829. With the addition of these 6,365 items published between 1792 and 1799, the bibliography contains more than 25,000 entries with citation, brief annotation and keyword. The types of publications are varied: monographs, periodicals, musical scores, university research, and governmental documents. Both volumes are covered by author and keyword indexes. [sh/ldb]

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