Volume 1

An index to the early printed books in the British Museum ... / by Robert Proctor.

  • Robert Proctor
Date:
1898-1938
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An index to the early printed books in the British Museum ... / by Robert Proctor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other instances will occur to every student. These remarks will probably suffice as an apology for this feature of my work.* I come now to the separate entries. Under each press is given a list Single entries. . . 01 the books in the British Museum and the Bodleian printed at that press, in chronological order ; the undated books being either placed together at the end, or when easily dateable by their types, distributed among the dated books, usually at the end of the dated books in the same types, if a direct succession of types is ascertainable. To go further than this would have demanded a greater elaboration of detail and expenditure of labour than the nature of the present work permitted. The entries of the separate books consist each of not more than ten parts, which are the following: 1. Running number. 2. Diacritical marks. 3. Date, if any. 4. Short title. 5. Heading under which the book is to be found in the British Museum catalogue. 6. Publisher, if any. 7. Size. 8. Reference to Plain or Campbell. 9. Types used. 10. Remarks. I will proceed to explain these in order. The first requires no comment. The marks used consist of an asterisk for books in both British Museum and Bodleian, and an obelus for books in the Bodleian only. Those in the Museum only have no distinguishing mark. Next comes the date, in connection with which several points have Dating * to be noted. (1) If a book is not dated, but contains (e.g. in a letter of the editor) a date not inconsistent with the typographical evidence, that date is used in the arrangement. It is included in square brackets, and is preceded by b. (before), n.b. (not before), a. (after), or n.a. (not after), according to the circumstances. For example, a speech printed in Plannck’s second type, if delivered in 1475, would be placed among the undated books ; if delivered on the 31st of August, 1484, it would be placed in its order among the dated books, the date being given as [a. 31 Aug. 1484]. (2) Books which have the date of the year, but no month or day, are, as a rule, placed after those of the same year in which the fuller information is given. But this rule is not invariable, if there is a large gap in any one year, and a number of books without month-date ; in this case the latter are generally arranged to fill the gap. Again, if one of the books printed in a particular year is dated in December, * I greatly regret that the first volume of the Catalogue general des incunables des Bibliotheqtfes publiques de France of Mile. Pellechet appeared too late for me to make full use of it. The notes of the types given in this remarkably able and conscientious work add largely to the information given here.
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