Library economy (chiefly continental) at the end of the seventeenth century / W.R.B. Prideaux.

  • Prideaux, William Reginald Bray.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Library economy (chiefly continental) at the end of the seventeenth century / W.R.B. Prideaux. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The practice of turning books with their backs to the wall continued much later than the latest date given in Mr. J. W. Clark’s Care of Books, namely, 1622. In a portrait of Baldwin Harney, M.D., at the Royal College of Physicians, painted in 1674, every other book is so turned on a shelf appearing in the background. Koch,1 writing of this practice in 1713, says: “We cannot altogether praise those who place the books so that their backs stick fixed to the wall, and the industry of the bookbinder quite escapes the eye of the visitor In truth this custom has not yet died out, for a visitor this year (1903) to the library of the Escorial relates that “the backs of the books are turned from the spectator in order to preserve them better, and the titles are conse- quently displayed on the gilded pages of the fronts ”.2 We come now to the subject of catalogues. They seem usually to have been drawn up in a classified form, though under wide headings. Koch3 says that the catalogue should be in exactly the same order as that in which the books stand on the shelves. It would in this way serve as a shelf-register also. Hottinger, as quoted by Morhof,4 advocates the making of four indexes for a library : the first chronological, in which the authors should be placed according to their age; the second logical, which should be in due classified order; the third theological (he made a specialty of theology); and the fourth alphabetical, in which there should be both author- and subject-entries, and not only whole books but parts of books were to be indexed. Short biographies should also be given. Morhof points out that topographical and chronological indexes, though valuable, were not necessary. The best method, in his opinion, was to have the catalogue in alpha- betical order under subjects, under which should come the author’s name with the bibliographical details of the book, not omitting the opinions of competent critics. He also considered that an author catalogue, though excellent in its way, was not sufficient alone for general use.5 I have not come across any mention of card catalogues, 1P. 78. 3P. 80. 2British Medical Journal, 1903,1., p. 1094. 4P. 50- 5P-37-