tocms aua bHOOTiNu. 216 pages, 8vo, olojl. gl.50. London [18961. iprcsenteD to of tbe \riniver0tt1? Of IToronto Fort William Public Library JOHN BRITNELL 1 Bookseller '230 YoNGK Stkeet TORON 1 i>, CANADA I Upwards i4 150.000 volumes of the best C'l-i Huropean and American Bucks in Stock, I-re- 3u('nt consijjnmunts irom our ! L'pot. Established, London, | Eng., 1873; Toronto, 1684. 1 CATALOGUFS MONTHLY A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GUNS AND SHOOTING. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bibliograpliyofguOOgerruoft A Bibliography of Guns and Shooting. BEING A LIST OF ANCIENT AND MODERN ENGLISH AND FOREIGN BOOKS RELATING TO FIREARMS AND THEIR USE, AND TO THE COMPOSITION AND MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVES ; WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON TECHNICAL BOOKS AND THE WRITERS OF THEM, FIREARMS INVENTIONS AND THE HISTORY OF GUNMAKING, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ART OF WING SHOOTING. Compiled and Revised to Date. WIRT GERRARE. /bC^ud.") FORMERLY EDITOR OF " THE GUNMAKER," "tHE SPORTING GOODS REVIEW," ETC., ETC. THE ROXBURGHE PRESS, Fifteen, Victoria Street, Westminster. THIS WORK AND ALL THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE ROXBURGHE PRESS ARE SUPPLIED TO THE TRADE BYMESSRS. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND COMPANY, LIMITED, AND CAN BE OBTAINED THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Technical Books and the Writers of them, with SOME Particulars of Firearms Inventions, the History of Gunmaking on the Continent of Europe, in England and in the United States of America, and the Development of the Practice AND Art of Shooting on the Wing . i PART I ANCIENT BOOKS (1472— 1850). Books written prior to 1600 . 15 Sixteenth-century Manuscripts 23 Seventeenth-century Books 24 Eighteenth-century English Books 42 Foreign Eighteenth-century Books 50 Books published 1800— 1850, in English 58 „ „ „ French . 71 „ „ „ German 75 M „ „ Italian 79 ,. ,, .. Spanish 80 —— vi Contents, PART II. MODERN BOOKS (1851— 1894). Lngush Books:— Guns and Shooting—Gunmaking—Gun Trade— Proof of Guns 85 Rifles—The Volunteer Movement—Monographs OF Special Arms 97 Gunnery—Ballistics—Field Trials—Art of Rifle Shooting loi Current English Sporting Books .... 106 Selected English Books on Foreign Sport . -115 Europe 116 Asia 117 Africa 120 America 122 Australasia 128 French Books : Current Works on Shooting 129 — — Guns Gun Manufacture Gunnery . .138 German Books : General Works — Military Rifles—Musketry— Gun-making—Sporting 148 Italian Books 155 Spanish Books 157 Various Languages . 160 — Contents. Vll PART III. APPENDICES. A Short Bibliography of Explosives : Books relating to Gunpowder 163 Modern High Explosives, etc 165 Ammunition, Gun Wounds, etc. 168 Technical Papers, Magazine Articles, and Newspaper References 170 Selected Books on Old Arms, Foreign Arms, etc. 178 Catalogues of Collections of Ancient Arms 181 Bibliographies : Sporting — Military—Encyclopedias AND Technical Dictionaries .... 184 Index to Authors 191 Some Recent Books and Omissions up to the end of 1895 203 , INTEODUCTION. So many books have been written upon guns and shooting that no apology is needed for publishing a guide to them. Incomplete and inadequate as the compilation may be, it is better than none at all ; for, if practical utiHty be the standard by which to measure the value of technical books, few will rank liigher in the estimation of students than do bibliographies. To the book collector this work will be probably of little value : it was compiled for the use of a writer, not a book buyer, and is both conceived and arranged with a view to best serving the needs of the student. Having departed from the cvistomary method of arrange- ment, a short explanation is desirable. The classification of books accorcUng to the accident of the initial letter of the name of the person writing them entails much additional labour upon all who consult a bibliography in order to identify a book, instead of for information concerning the writer of it ; the arrangement of books alphabetically by titles is equally objectionable ; and the method of Rumpf who classed the books in accordance with their size, is worst of all. The classification by authors' names is a survival : in days when authors were few, men of erudition were supposed to know at least the names of all, and doubtless possessed some idea as to the dates at which the various authors wrote. Now authors are numerous, and the persons who most often consult a bibliography, what- 1 Introduction. rarely well ever their knowledge of the subject, are written acquainted with the names of the persons who have of firearms it is the date, upon it. Moreover, in the history -important, and in technical matters the fact, which is all of no moment the personaUty of the author being frequently whatever. Learned persons may at once recognise Waltei- learned persons in Valturius and Greaves in Giuvius, but and shooting are not likely to take so much interest in guns and gun- as are class journalists, technical instructors, makers—persons who are not learned in the dry-as-dust foreign sense. Another trouble with names, particularly designation: Alenzo names, is to recognise the important the British Martinez del Espinar would, in accordance with the Museum rules of indexing, have to be sought in to catalogue under D, the portion of the name least likely be remembered. With some double names, particularly place the those of Austrian writers, it is customary to process Christian, or added, name after the family name—a recollection often of inversion which human powers of perform automatically, and after a short time recall Alvarez the Perez as Perez Alvarez. In order to save the time of authors student, in the alphabetical list of authors some have more than one entry, owing to the persistence with which the added name surged up into memory, whilst the correct index name could not be recollected. dates Clearly, for the student of history classification by student wishes to is likely to be more convenient. If the learn what was known of firearms in the seventeenth of the works century, it is better to turn to a catalogue published at that time than to search through many lists writer, of unknown names, and often, upon choosing a another consult the work only to find that it belongs to books are period. In the same way the language in which of the book wi'itten is of minor importance, and the size Introduction. probably of no account whatever. Therefore, in the Jirst part of this bibliography, which is devoted to ancient books —those piiblished between 1450 and 1850—the order is mainly chronological ; but the books of the last century are subdivided into English and Foreign, and those of the first half of the present century into English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. In dealing with modern books a different classification is advisable. To most it is of the first importance to learn whether the book is written in English—if not, in what language it is written ; or to know what technical books exist in any particular language. The subdivisions in this second part therefore deal in the first place with books in English—those relating to arms generally, to particular descriptions of arms, to the technicalities of gun-making, to the proof of guns, to ballistics or gunnery, to the art of shooting with gun and rifle, and, lastly, to sport with the gun at home and abroad. The same method of subdividing is adhered to with French and German books, and, in a minor degree, with those of Italy and Spain. No bibliography of practical pioportions could be produced unless many works were purposely excluded. In this com- pilation books will be found which at first sight will appear to no right of entry as long as others are have excluded ; but there are publications with misleading or too compre- hensive titles which need to be specified in order that time may not be wasted by referring to certain books owing to a misconception of their nature. " The Rifle and how to use it," by J. V. Bridgeman, is no indication that the work is a farce, and originally performed at the Haymarket in 1859. A docket to this effect will save the student time and the librarian useless labour. The exclusion extends in a complete manner to modern military treatises dealing with ordnance, those of a general Introduction. devoted to the art of nature, and those for the most part all such works are war fortification and military tactics ; which may be enumerated in the military bibUographies, works, in which some- readily consulted. Many sporting shooting, have also had to be thing is said of firearms and the many recent passed by, and only a bare hundred out of Foreign works devoted to sport abroad have been selected. have also been sporting works, of little technical interest, advantageously omitted; the reader needing them may Souhait. Russian consult the more general bibliography of must not, however, sporting books have been excluded ; it this description, be inferred that Russia has no Hterature of were considerable, only that the typographical difiiculties Russian books of the and the interest at present taken in notices in " Priroda class infinitesimal. The bibliographical " periodicals will probably be y Ohhota and in the service readers likely to require sufiicient for the purposes of the few to consult Russian sporting books. works The appendices contain a short bibhography of been selected as relating to explosives, such works having the student of the likely to prove of the greatest service to of the most noteworthy history of guns and shooting ; lists societies and an index technical papers read before learned ; The student to technical articles in various periodicals.