book I
know in this respect is:—A universal alphabet grammar and language, ... by George Edmonds, ... [1856] quarto:—The following is the collation. Its length would generally preclude its being given in a bibliotheca. First we have the preface vii pages, then a table of contents vii pages; the introduction 34 pages, a half-title unpaged, then 152 pages, then another half-title unpaged, then pp. 44 and iii., then corrigenda pp. ix., then a half-title and “the Dictionary,” forming a third of the book entirely unpaged, then the addenda paged separately pp. 3. Sometimes the figures of paging are at the side, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the top and sometimes at the bottom! Timperley in his “Printer’s Manual” (1838) p. 18, says, “Running titles may be set to an index, but folios are seldom put unless with a view to recommend the book for its extraordinary number of pages; for as an index does not refer to its own matter by figures, they are needless in this case.” When the trouble that a variety of pagings gives the bibliographer, is considered, it is to be hoped that the simplicity I recommend will be adopted as much as possible.
Always count from the very first printed page belonging to the book, excluding advertisements. Give the paging as printed, that is, in the same characters. If leaves occur unpaged, either before those paged or after, use arabian numerals to denote those unpaged.
Sometimes an octavo book begins with, say xii. numbered pages and then occur four unnumbered, and then we have page 1 on signature B, numbered consecutively to page 253, and three pages of appendix and errata beyond. Describe it thus: octavo pp. xii., and 4, and 253, and 3. But if 4 and 3 are numbered with roman numerals, it should be thus:—octavo, pp. xii., and iv., 253, iii., because this is more accurate. We use the same kind of numerals used in the book. It is, however, not a matter of much moment, provided the correct number of pages is given in the collation.
I do not use the sign plus (xii.+iv.+iii.) because it makes the figures look more uninteresting, and signs enough occur in the titles themselves.
The price at which a book is published is often unascertainable, and it is useful to insert it, though it has nothing to do with its literary or scientific value. But in this as in every other particular it is impossible to say what the student may require, and its omission might make a man of genius waste precious hours which it is the special object of the true bibliographer to save.
If the price is mentioned on the title page, accuracy requires that it be given in its regular order, whether at the beginning or end of the title. Instances will be found in the list of works by a lady at the end.
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STYLE OF PRINTING.
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I now come to a few minor points of printing, for in a catalogue nothing is so trivial as not to require attention.
In the previous observations I have treated of things that are invariable, they must be attended to, in any list of books, there is no room for exercise of taste, they go to the very root of a good catalogue, and are laws dictated by accuracy.
But the manner in which a title is printed in a list or catalogue, or biography is a matter of taste, and we therefore give the following hints merely as suggestions[27], hoping that they will commend themselves to all who print title-pages. Have as few capitals as possible in the title, none except for names of persons or places. Titles of persons may well be printed without capitals, as prince, marquess, lord, not Prince, Marquess, Lord.
Footnote 27:
Most of which have been acted on, if not carried to their fullest extent in my study, already referred to: “A bibliographical list of lord Brougham’s publications,” printed in Lord Brougham’s Works, ... Edinb., A. and C. Black, 1873, vol XI., pp. 463 to 486.
Take for example the following title, which, printed according to the usual method would be:—
“Speeches by the Lord Chancellor; Lord Brougham, Lord Cottenham; and Lord Campbell, in The House of Lords, on Tuesday the 9th, August, 1842, at giving Judgment in the Appeal, the Rev. John Ferguson and others, Appellants, against the Earl of Kinnoull, and the Rev. R. Young, Respondents, with the Judgments appended, from Mr. Gurney’s Shorthand notes,” &c.
I prefer this title-page for catalogue purposes to be printed thus:
Speeches by the lord chancellor [Lyndhurst], lord Brougham, lord Cottenham, and lord Campbell in the house of lords, on tuesday the 9th august, 1842, at giving judgment in the appeal, the rev. John Ferguson and others, appellants, against the earl of Kinnoull and the rev. R. Young, respondents; with the judgment appended from Mr. Gurney’s shorthand notes. Edinb. James Gall and son [1842], 8o, pp. 36, 1s. The improvement in appearance of this title and the facility in reading, counterbalance all such objections as that we are accustomed to Lord, and not lord, or Tuesday, and not tuesday. The compilers of the [English] Law List have long since discarded capitals for the names of streets with great advantage, for example they print, “gray’s-inn-square,” not Gray’s Inn Square: “court of exchequer”; “house of lords,” &c. The Catalogue of the Advocates library, lately printed, is a good example; refer for instance to the title under Bullion, vol I., 1867, p. 763, a title that in ordinary catalogues would bristle with capitals.
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PUNCTUATION.
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The punctuation should also be carefully considered. Everything in bibliography is at present very much over punctuated, half, if not two thirds, might be dispensed with to the lessening of the expense, and the great advantage in the appearance.
Imagine you are copying a sentence instead of a title page, and punctuate and put capitals accordingly. If writing that a work was by an author, nobody would write By, neither need it have a capital for a copy of a title.
Mr. Henry Stevens has advocated and adopted this method in his later catalogues and notably in the:—“Bibliotheca geographica and historica or a catalogue of a nine days sale of rare & valuable ... books ... et cetera ... with an essay upon the Stevens system of photobibliography by Henry Stevens GMB [_i.e._ gatherer of musty books] ... [with a photograph of] Ptolemy’s World by Mercator 1578