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Download This PDF File have issued publications under such top-heavy lectures supplement the author's History of designations. the Cambridge University Press (1921) where This raises the practical point: do such lists the material on early publishing lacked the really make a contribution, or are they mere- information provided by manuscripts since ly the by-products of "busy work"? It may be discovered and where the material on modern argued that even if they are in the latter cat- publishing was, with proper delicacy, subor- egory, theresults are possibly useful and should dinated. Thus, the earlier book discusses works be made available. All well and good, but part published or printed at the beginning of the of the $5.00 price tag on the Wisconsin list eighteenth century with occasional references is due to the padding-out of headings. Each to the curators' minute-books; in the present library must assess the value of these lists for volume, cash accounts are analyzed to show itself, weighing the advantages against the production costs. The "sad story of the pub- drawbacks. Librarians need not be reminded lication of the Suidas Lexicon" (1705), in that, an Oklahoma heading to the contrary, which, unwillingly, "the Curators were for the there is no Santa Claus Commission.—John first time faced with the problems and respon- Rather, School of Library Service, Columbia sibilities of a publisher," is here told in de- University. tail. The master of Pembroke then turns to the nineteenth century, discussing efforts to main- Cambridge Publishing tain the press on a profitable basis before con- The Evolution of Cambridge Publishing. By sidering the important publication projects: S. C. Roberts. New York: Cambridge Uni- Arabia Deserta, the Revised Version, the Pitt versity Press, 1956. 67 p. $2.75. Press series of textbooks, the Cambridge Mod- ern History, and lesser works. These are re- Unlike the editors of Webster's Collegiate viewed in a rather cursory fashion; no at- Dictionary, those Cantabrigians who guide the tempt is made to supply detailed information Sandars Lectures in Bibliography are well about production costs, number of copies aware that bibliography is neither confined sold, or even the editorial policies. Instead, to the history or description of books and emphasis is placed upon the growth of the manuscripts, nor to lists of writings. During publishing business conducted by the press, the past decade, this distinguished lecture ser- citing changes in organization as well as in ies has offered sound and varied fare, in- kinds of books published. cluding studies of manuscripts, incunabula, The final lecture describes "a few, only a and the book trade as well as John Carter's few, features of the development of Cambridge penetrating comments on tendencies in book printing and publishing in the present cen- collecting. The Evolution of Cambridge Pub- tury." But the few chosen are probably the lishing, the latest to be published, again re- most interesting: the syndics' experience with minds us of this breadth of interest, for it an American promoter in the publication of concerns the history of publishing rather than the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- the history of books. tannica, the typographical renaissance under Although the university press at Cambridge Bruce Rogers and Stanley Morison, and the has printed books since the sixteenth century, success of the press in publishing textbooks its publishing activities are fairly recent. In as well as occasional best-sellers. When one this volume of the Sandars Lectures for 1954, remembers that, during part of this period, S. C. Roberts, master of Pembroke College the author was secretary to the syndics, it is and formerly secretary to the syndics of the disappointing to find comparatively little press, presents a broad survey of publishing new information. A less objective, more per- at Cambridge. Each of the three lectures is sonal approach might have provided a bet- devoted to a particularly important period: ter insight into the evolution of Cambridge the revival of the press under Richard Bent- publishing at that time. However, now that ley about 1700, the increased attention to this study has been completed, it is to be publishing in the second half of the nine- hoped that an autobiographical account will teenth century, and some significant develop- be prepared. Certainly there is much more to ments of the twentieth century. The first two tell. 274 C( .LEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES This very handsome volume, with its fine to the task," and insists that "accuracy, indus- plates, has been produced with the artistry try, and learning are not the only virtues re- and care characteristic of recent Cambridge quired of a bibliographer," adding that "a University Press books. One could not imag- bibliographer must be a practical man who ine a more appropriate format for this brief sees how his book will be used." He concedes but useful contribution to the history of pub- that "any definition of a bibliography is dif- lishing.—Rollo G. Silver, School of Library ficult to formulate and even more difficult to Science, Simmons College. adhere to." The penultimate chapter is de- voted to modern "Periodical and Cooperative Enterprises." The conclusion reached is that Bibliographies of Bibliographies "with all their faults and insufficiencies—and what human works lack them?—bibliogra- A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies. phies of bibliographies are very valuable aids By Archer Taylor. New Brunswick, N. J.: to scholars." "Each age," Professor Taylor Scarecrow Press, 1955. ix, 147 p. $3.50. avers, "must create its own bibliography of In this notable contribution to professional bibliographies." literature, Professor Taylor returns to the con- Professor Taylor alludes to his study as an sideration of that "essence of an essence," "historical summary," but it is more than that "sophisticated tool" which, within nar- that: it is criticism at its finest and soundest, rower limits, he discussed with so much grace too.—David C. Mearns, Library of Congress. and learning, a decade ago, in his Renaissance Guides to Books. Now he traces the history of bibliographies of bibliographies from Je- Books, Libraries & Librarians rome the canonized to Besterman the blessed Books, Libraries, Librarians. Contributions and beset. He has restricted himself to "works to Library Literature. Selected by John of universal scope"; some 50 names or titles David Marshall, Wayne Shirley and Louis appear in the index. Shores. Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String Press, To Conrad Gesner's Pandectae (1548) he 1955. 432p. $6. gives credit for "an auspicious beginning of a very difficult aspect of bibliography," and The compilation offered by Mr. Marshall for constituting "the first modern bibliog- and his associates is intended to include a raphy of bibliographies," which "aimed at "representative selection" from the "body comprehensiveness and included works of all of professional literature" which possesses ages as far as they came to his knowledge." the "quality of readability," to provide "a Francis Sweerts' Athenae Belgicae (1628) is source of pleasure and of profit to the pro- said to have been not only "the first classified fession's tyro and veteran alike," and to be bibliography of bibliographies" but also "the "read by librarians and library school stu- first independent or almost independent bib- dents seeking recreation, instruction and liography of bibliographies," a qualified pri- perhaps even inspiration." (Introduction, macy which, in its fullest sense, he reserves p. [xi]) Inasmuch as more than a quarter of for Philip Labbe's Bibliotheca Bibliotheca- the authors are non-librarians, the meaning rum (1652). given to "body of professional literature" is There are interesting accounts of the efforts a rather unusual and certainly a very broad (so far fruitless) to recover Jodocus Dudinck's one. But let it stand without argument. vanished Bibliothecariographia (1643), of the The work is divided into four sections: unpublished Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum of "Books and Reading," with 13 papers; "Li- Cornelius a Beughem, and of the lost man- braries," with 11; "Librarians and Librar- uscript of Charles Moette's Bibliotheca Al- ianship," with 16; and four notable state- phabetica, this last the only treatise on the ments of the librarian's profession, "The subject which "can be dated in the eighteenth Freedom to Read," "The Library Bill of century." Rights," "The ALA Statement on Labeling," Professor Taylor refers to "the temptation and the "Code of Ethics." that comes to every bibliographer to wander This is, in several respects, an astonishing afield and include works of little pertinence florilegium. Of the 40 articles and essays, MAY, 1956 275 .
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