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BIBLE SOCIETIES
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See also:BIBLE See also:SOCIETIES , associations for translating and circulating the See also:Holy Scriptures. This See also:object has engaged the See also:attention of the leaders of Christendom from See also:early times. In an extant See also:letter, dated A.D. 331, the See also:emperor See also:Constantine requested See also:Eusebius, See also:bishop of Caesarea, to provide him with fifty copies of the Old and New Testaments for use in the See also:principal churches in See also:Constantinople. In 797 See also:Charlemagne commissioned See also:Alcuin to prepare an emended See also:text of the See also:Vulgate; copies of this text were multiplied, not always accurately, in the famous See also:writing-See also:schools at See also:Tours. The first See also:book printed in See also:Europe was the Latin Bible, and Copinger estimates that 124 See also:editions of the Vulgate had been issued by the end of the 15th See also:century. The See also:Italian Bible was printed a dozen times before A.D. 1500, and eighteen editions of the See also:German Bible had already been published before See also:Luther's version appeared.
The See also:Reformation quickened men's See also:interest in the Scriptures to an extraordinary degree, so that, notwithstanding the adverse attitude adopted by the See also:Roman See also: Petavel, La Bible en See also:France, p. 152)
To meet the cost of See also:publishing the Finn Bible in 1685, the editor, J. Gezelius, bishop of See also:Abo, obtained an See also:order from the See also:Swedish See also:government for the See also:appropriation of certain See also:corn-See also:tithes, still known as Bibel Tryck-Tunnan. When the Finnish Bible Society began to publish editions of the Scriptures, the See also:tsar See also: See also:Protestant missionary societies have engaged energetically in the task not only of translating, but of printing, publishing and distributing the Scriptures. Thus the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1698), besides its other activities, has done much to cheapen and multiply copies of the Scriptures, not only in See also:English and Welsh, but in many See also:foreign See also:languages. Early in the 18th century it printed editions in Arabic, and promoted the first versions of the Bible in Tamil and See also:Telugu, made by the Danish Lutheran missionaries whom it then sup-ported in See also:south See also:India. The earliest New Testament (1767) and OH Testament (1783–1801) in Gaelic were published by the Society in See also:Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (founded 1709). The S.P.C.K. now publishes versions of the Scriptures (either complete, or in See also:part) in 38 different languages (without reckoning versions of the See also:Prayer Book in 45 other languages); and during 1905–1906 the S.P.C.K. issued in England 116,126 Bibles and 17,783 New Testaments. The earliest noteworthy organization, formed for the specific purpose of circulating the Scriptures, was the Canstein Bible See also:Institute (Bibelanstalt), founded in 1710 at See also:Halle in See also:Saxony, by Karl See also:Hildebrand, See also:baron von Canstein (1667–1719), who was associated with P. J. Spener and other leaders of See also:Pietism in See also:Germany. He invented a method of printing, perhaps somewhat akin to stereotyping—though the details are not clearly known,—whereby the Institute could produce Bibles and Testaments in Luther's version at a very low cost, and sell them, in small See also:size, at prices See also:equivalent to See also:rod. and 3d. per copy, respectively. In 1722 editions of the Scriptures were also issued in Bohemian and See also:Polish. At von Ca.nstem's See also:death he See also:left the Institute to the care of his friend See also:August See also:Hermann See also:Francke, founder in 1698 of the famous Waisenhaus (orphanage) at Halle. The Canstein Institute has issued some 6,000,000 copies of the Scriptures. In England various Christian organizations, which arose out of the Evangelical See also:movement in the 18th century, took part in the See also:work. Among such may be mentioned the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge among the Poor (1750); and the Society for the Support and Encouragement of See also:Sunday Schools (1785). An institution was founded in 17$0 under the name of the Bible Society, but as its See also:sphere was restricted to soldiers and See also:seamen the title was afterwards changed to the See also:Naval and Military Bible Society. The first See also:ship among whose See also:crew it distributed the Scriptures was the " Royal See also:George," which had 400 of this society's Bibles on See also:board when it foundered at Spithead on the 29th of August 1782. The French Bible Society, instituted in 1792, came to an end in 1803, owing to the Revolution.
The See also:British and Foreign Bible Society.—In 1804 was founded in See also:London the British and Foreign Bible Society, the most important association of its See also:kind. It originated in a proposal made to the See also:committee of the Religious See also:Tract Society, by the Rev. See also: Up to 1816–1817 the See also:parent society had received from its auxiliaries altogether 420,000. This See also:system continues to flourish. In 1905–190( the society had about 5800 auxiliaries, branches and associations in England and Wales, and more than 2000 auxiliaries abroad, mainly in the British Colonies, many of which undertake vigorous local work, besides remitting contributions to London. The society's advance was chequered by several controversies. (a) Its fundamental See also:law to circulate the Bible alone, without note or comment, was vehemently attacked by Bishop See also:Marsh and other divines of the Church of England, who insisted that the Prayer Book ought to accompany the Bible. (b) Another more serious controversy related to the circulation—chiefly through affiliated societies on the continent—of Bibles containing the Deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament. In 1826 the society finally resolved that its fundamental law be fully and distinctly recognized as excluding the circulation " of those Books, or parts of Books, which are usually termed Apocryphal." This step, however, failed to satisfy most of the society's supporters in Scotland, who proceeded to See also:form themselves into See also:independent organizations, grouped for the most part See also:round centres at See also:Edinburgh and See also:Glasgow. These were finally amalgamated in 1861 into the See also:National Bible Society of Scotland. (c) A third disnute turned upon the admissibility of non-See also:Trinitarians to the See also:privilege of co-operation. The refusal of the society to alter its constitution so as formally to exclude such persons led to the formation (1831) of the Trinitarian Bible Society, which is still in existence. (d) A See also:fourth controversy arose out of the restrictive renderings of the See also:term " baptize " and its cognate terms, adopted by William See also:Carey and his colleagues in their famous " Serampore Versions," towards publishing which the society had contributed up to 1830 nearly £30,000. Protests from other See also:Indian missionaries led the society to determine that it could circulate only such versions as gave neutral renderings for the terms in question. As a sequel, the Bible Translation Society was founded in 1839 to issue versions embodying distinctively Baptist renderings.
By one of its See also:original See also:laws the British and Foreign Bible Society could circulate no copies of the Scriptures in English other than See also: Of the whole 1,921,000 volumes were issued from the Bible See also:House, London, and 1,331,000 were in English or Welsh, circulating chiefly in England and the British colonies. The other main See also:fields of distribution were as follows:—France, 203,000 copies; Central Europe, 679,000; See also:Italy, 117,000; See also:Spain and See also:Portugal, 120,0oo; the See also:Russian See also:empire, 595,000; India, See also:Burma and See also:Ceylon, 768,000; See also:Japan, 286,000; and See also:China, 1,075,000 (most of these last being See also:separate gospels).
The society spends £10,000 a year in grants to religious and philanthropic agencies at See also:home. Outside the United See also:Kingdom
it has its own agencies or secretaries in twenty-seven of the See also:chief cities of the world, and maintains depots in 200 other centres. It employs 930 Christian colporteurs abroad, who sold in 1905-1906 over 2,250,000 volumes. It supports 67o native Christian Bible-women in the See also:East, in connexion with See also:forty different missionary organizations. The See also:centenary festival in 1904 was celebrated with See also:enthusiasm by the Reformed Churches and their foreign missions throughout the world. Messages of congratulation came from the rulers of every Protestant nation in Christendom, and a centenary thanksgiving fund of 250,000 guineas was raised for extending the society's work. During the year 1905-1906 the society expended £238,632, while its income was £231,964 (of which £98,204 represented receipts from sales). Up to the 31st of See also: Its total issues from 1861 to 1906 were 26,106,265 volumes. In See also:Ireland the Hibernian Bible Society (originally known as the See also:Dublin Bible Society) was founded in 18o6, and with it were federated kindred Irish associations formed at See also:Cork, See also:Belfast, Derry, &c. The Hibernian Bible Society, whose centenary was celebrated in 1906, had then issued a total of 5;713,837 copies. It sends an See also:annual See also:subsidy to aid the foreign work of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Other See also:European Societies.—The impluse which founded the British. and Foreign Bible Society in 1804 soon spread over Europe, and, notwithstanding the turmoils of the See also:Napoleonic See also:wars, kindred organizations on similar lines quickly sprang up, promoted and subsidized by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Many of these secured royal and aristocratic patronage and encouragement—the tsar of See also:Russia, the See also:kings of See also:Prussia, See also:Bavaria, See also:Sweden, See also:Denmark and See also:Wurttemberg all lending their See also:influence to the enterprise. Within fourteen years the following Bible societies were in active operation: the See also:Basel Bible Society (founded at See also:Nuremberg, 1804), the Prussian Bible Society (founded as the See also:Berlin Bible Society, 1805), the Revel Bible Society (1.8o7), the Swedish Evangelical Society (18o8), the Dorpat Bible Society (1811), the See also:Riga Bible Society (1812), the Finnish Bible Society (1812), the Hungarian Bible Institution (See also:Pressburg, 1812), the Wurttemberg Bible Society (See also:Stuttgart, 1812), the Swedish Bible Society (1814), the Danish Bible Society (1814), the Saxon Bible Society (See also:Dresden, 1814), the Thuringian Bible Society (See also:Erfurt, 1814), the See also:Berg Bible Society (Eberfeld, 1814), the See also:Hanover Bible Society (1814), the See also:Hamburg-See also:Altona Bible Society (1814), the See also:Lubeck Bible Society (1814), the See also:Netherlands Bible Society (See also:Amsterdam, 1814). These were increased in 1815 by the See also:Brunswick, See also:Bremen, See also:Schleswig-See also:Holstein, See also:Strassburg and Eichsfeld (Saxony) Bible Societies, and the Icelandic Bible Society. In 1816-1817 came the See also:Norwegian Bible Society, the Polish Bible Society and ten See also:minor German Bible Societies. Twelve cantonal societies had also been formed in See also:Switzerland. Up to 1816-1817 these societies had printed altogether 436,000 copies of the Scriptures, and had received from the British and Foreign Bible Society gifts amounting to over £62,000. The decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1826 with regard to circulating the Apocrypha (see above) modified its relations with the most influential of these See also:continental societies. Some of them were ultimately dissolved or suppressed through See also:political or ecclesiastical opposition, the Roman Church proving especially hostile. But many of them still flourish, and are actively engaged in their original task. The circulation of the Scriptures by German Bible Societies during 1905 was estimated as follows: The Prussian Bible Society (Berlin), 182,000 copies; the Wurttemberg Bible Institute (Stuttgart), 247,000; the Berg Bible Society (Eberfeld), 142,000; the Saxon Bible Society (Dresden), 44,000; the Central Bible Association (Nuremberg), 14,000; the Canstein Bible Institute (Halle), the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society, the Hamburg-Altona Bible Society and others, together 56,000. During 1905, nine cantonal Bible societies in Switzerland circulated altogether 71,000 copies; the Netherlands Bible Society reported a circulation of 54,544 volumes, 48,137 of which were in Dutch; the Danish Bible Society circulated 45,289 copies; the Norwegian Bible Society circulated 67,058 copies; and in Sweden the Evangelical National Society distributed about 110,000 copies. In Italy, by a departure from the traditional policy of the Roman Church, the newly formed " Pious Society of St See also:Jerome for the Dissemination of the Holy Gospels " issued in 1901 from the Vatican See also:press a new Italian version of the Four Gospels and Acts. By the end of 1905 the society announced that over 400,000 copies of this See also:volume had been sold at 2d. a copy. In France, the Societe biblique protestante de Paris, founded in 1818, with generous aid from the British and Foreign Bible Society, had a somewhat restricted basis and See also:scope. In 1833 the Sociee biblique francaise et etran'gcre was formed on wider lines; after its See also:dissolution in 1863, many of its supporters joined the Societe biblique de France, which See also:dates from 1864, and represents chiefly members of the Eglise libre, and kindred French Evangelicals. During 1905 its issues were 34,475 copies, while the Societe biblique protestante de Paris issued 8o61 copies. Of these non-British societies the most noteworthy was established in Russia, In See also:December 1812, while " the last shattered remnants of See also:Napoleon's Grand See also:Army struggled across the See also:ice of the Niemen," the tsar Alexander I. sanctioned plans for a Bible society, which was promptly inaugurated at St See also:Petersburg under the See also:presidency of See also:Prince Galitzin. Through the See also:personal favour of the tsar, it made rapid and remarkable progress. Nobles and ministers of See also:state, with the chief ecclesiastics not only of the Russian Church but of the Roman, the Uniat, the Armenian, the Greek, the Georgian and the Lutheran Churches, found themselves constrained to serve on its committees. By the See also:close of 1823 the Russian Bible Society had formed 289 auxiliaries, extending eastwards to See also:Yakutsk and See also:Okhotsk; and had received altogether £145,640. In 1824, however, Prince Galitzin ceased to be See also:procurator of the Holy See also:Synod, and See also:Seraphim, See also:metropolitan of St Petersburg, became president of the Russian Bible Society. And in 1826, soon after his See also:accession, the tsar See also:Nicholas I. issued a ukase suspending the society's operations —after it had printed the Scriptures in thirty different languages, seventeen of which were new tongues, and had circulated 600,000 volumes from the See also:Caucasus to See also:Kamchatka. In 1828 Nicholas I. sanctioned the See also:establishment of a Protestant Bible Society, which still exists, to See also:supply the Scriptures only to Protestant subjects of the tsar (cf. Th. Schiemann, Geschichte Russlands unter Nikolaus I. vol. i. See also:chap. ix.). In 1839 St. Petersburg became the headquarters of an agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which enjoys special facilities in Russia, and now annually circulates about 600,000 copies of the Scriptures, in fifty different languages, within the Russian empire. In America the earliest Bible society was founded at See also:Philadelphia in 18o8. Six more societies—including those of New See also:York and of Massachusetts—were formed during 1809, and other societies, auxiliaries and associations quickly followed. In 1816 a See also:convention of delegates representing 31 of these institutions met at NewYork and established the See also:American Bible Society, with See also:Elias See also:Boudinot as president. All kindred organizations in the states gradually became amalgamated with this national See also:body, and the federation was completed in 1839 by the See also:adhesion of the Philadelphia Society (which now changed its name to the See also:Pennsylvania Bible Society). Not a few noteworthy versions of the Bible, such as those in Arabic, 15 dialects of See also:Chinese, Armenian, and Zulu, and many American Indian, Philippine, and See also:African languages have appeared under the auspices of the American Bible Society. See also:Turkish, classical Chinese, and Korean versions have been made by the American and British societies jointly. The society's foreign agencies extend to China, Japan, See also:Korea, the Turkish empire, See also:Bulgaria, See also:Egypt, See also:Micronesia, See also:Siam, See also:Mexico, Central America, the South American republics, See also:Cuba and the See also: 1903, vol. ii. 1908). (T. H. D.)
Examination and See also:Collation.—Books are submitted to examination in order to discover their origin, or to test statements concerning it which there is See also:reason to doubt, or to ascertain if they are perfect, and if perfect whether they are in their original See also:condition or have been " made up " from other copies. The See also:discovery of where, when and by whom a book, or fragment of a book, was printed, is the most difficult of these tasks, though as regards books printed in the 15th century it has been much facilitated by the numerous facsimiles enumerated under See also:INCUNABULA (q.v.). In the See also:article Boo( (q.v.) a See also:sketch is given of the chief See also:external characteristics of books in each century since the invention of printing. .Familiarity with books of different ages and countries soon creates a See also:series of See also:general ideas as to the dates and places with which any See also:combination of these characteristics may be connected, and an experienced bibliographer, more especially if he knows something of the history of See also:paper, will quickly narrow down the See also: See also:Peter." Only a knowledge of the general characteristics which a book printed at such a place and such a See also:time should possess will secure avoidance of these traps, but when suspicion has been aroused the whole See also:story will often be found in such books as Weller's See also:Die maskirte Literatur der iilteren laid neueren Sprachen (1856-1867), and Die false/ten und fingirlen Druckorte (1864), See also:Brunet's Imprimeurs imaginaires et libraires supposes (1866), de Brouillant's La Liberte de la.Presse en France; Histoire de See also:Pierre du Marteau, imprimeur ¢ See also:Cologne,&c. (1888) ; in the various See also:bibliographies of Erotica and in Brunet's See also:Manuel de l'See also:Amateur and other handbooks for the use of collectors. A special See also:case of this problem of piracies and spurious imprints is that of the See also:modern photographic or type-facsimile See also:forgery of small books possessing a high commercial value, such as the early editions of the letter of See also:Columbus announcing his discoveryof the New World. See also:Bad forgeries of this kind can be detected by the tendency of all photographic processes of See also:reproduction to thicken letters and exaggerate every kind of defect, but the best of these imitations when printed on old paper require a specific knowledge of the originals and often cause great trouble. The type-facsimile forgeries are mostly of See also:short pieces by See also:Tennyson, George Eliot and A. C. See also:Swinburne, printed (or supposed to have been printed—for it is doubtful if some of these " forgeries " ever had any originals) for circulation among See also:friends. These trifles should never be See also:purchased without a written See also:guarantee. When the edition to which a book belongs is known, further examination is needed to ascertain if it is perfect and in its original state. Where no standard collation is available, this can only be ascertained by a detailed examination of the quires or gatherings of which it is made up (see below). In the earliest books these are often very irregular. A large book was usually printed simultaneously in four or six sections on as many different presses, and the several compositors, if unable to end their sections at the end of a complete See also:quire, would insert a single See also:leaf to give more space, or sometimes leave a See also:blank See also:page, or half page, for lack of See also:matter, occasionally adding the note " Hie nullus est defectus." A careful examination of the text, a task from which bibliographers often shrink, and a comparison with other editions, are the only remedies in these cases. If a copy contains the right number of leaves, the further question arises as to whether any of these have been supplied from other copies, or are in facsimile. Few collectors even now are educated enough to prefer copies in the condition in which the ravages of time have left them to those which have been " completed " by dealers; hence many old books have been " made up " with leaves from other copies, or not infrequently from other editions. These meddlings often defy detection, but See also:proof of them may be found in See also:differences in the height and See also:colour of the paper, in the two corresponding leaves at either end of a folio quire both possessing a watermark, or in their wiremarks not corresponding, or (in very early books) by the ornamentation added by hand being in a different See also:style. When it has been ascertained that a copy contains the right number of leaves and that all these leaves are original, the last point to be settled is as to whether it differs in any respect from the standard collation. Owing to the extreme slowness of the presswork for the first two centuries after the invention of printing, there were more opportunities for making small corrections while an old book was passing through the press than there are in the case of modern ones, and on the other hand the balls used for inking the type sometimes caught up words or individual letters and these were replaced by the compositors as best they could. The small See also:variations in the text noticed in different copies of the First Folio edition of See also:Shakespeare, and again of See also:Milton's See also:Paradise Lost, are probably to be explained by a mixture of these two causes. Where a serious See also:error was discovered after a See also:sheet had been printed off, the leaf on which it occurred was sometimes cut out and a new leaf (called a " See also:cancel ") printed to replace it and pasted on to the See also:rest of the sheet. Variations between different copies of the first edition of See also:Herrick's See also:Hesperides which have puzzled all his editors are due to the presence of several of such cancels. Lastly, a printer when he had printed part of a book might wish to increase the size of the edition, and the leaves already printed off would have to be reprinted, thus causing a combination of identical and different leaves in different copies. The famous 42-See also:line Bible of c. 1455, variously attributed to See also:Gutenberg and to See also:Fust and Schoeffer, and the See also:Valerius See also:Maximus printed by Schoeffer in 1471, are instances of editions being thus enlarged while passing through the press. As each book was set up simultaneously on several different presses, the reprinted leaves occur at the beginning of each of the sections. It should be mentioned that there are books of which it is difficult to find two copies in exact agreement. Either to quicken presswork or to comply with See also:trade-regulations made in the interest of compositors, in some books of which large See also:numbers were required, e.g. the Paraphrases of See also:Erasmus, the First Prayer-book of See also:Edward VI., and the " Songs and Sonnets " known as Totten's See also:Miscellany, each forme was set up two or more different times. The formes were then used at haphazard for printing, and both at this See also:stage and when the printed sheets came to be stitched almost any number of different combinations might be made. The books named were all printed in the See also:middle of the 16th century, but probably later instances could be produced. Description.—The ideal towards which all See also:bibliographical work should be directed is the See also:provision in an accessible form of a standard description of a perfect copy of every book of See also:literary, historical or typographical interest as it first issued from the press, and of all the variant issues and editions of it. When such standard descriptions shall have been made, adequately checked and printed, it will be possible to describe every individual copy by a See also:simple reference to them, with a statement of its differences, if any, and an insistence on the points bearing on the special object with which it is being re-described. Only in a few cases has any approach been made to a collection of such standard descriptions. One instance which may be cited is that of the entries of the 15th century books in the Repertorium Bibliographicum of See also:Ludwig Hain (1826-1838), which the addition of an See also:asterisk marks as having been examined by Hain himself in the copies in the Royal library at See also:Munich. The high standard of accuracy of these asterisked entries (See also:save for the omission to note blank leaves at the beginning or end) has been so well established, and the Repertorium is so widely known, that in many catalogues of incunabula the short title of the book together with the number of Hain's entry has been usefully substituted for a long description. Books printed at See also:Oxford up to 164o can be equally well described by their short titles and a reference to Mr See also:Falconer See also:Madan's Early Oxford Press published in 1895, At See also:present the number of works which can thus be taken as a standard is only small, owing partly to the greater and more accurate detail now demanded, partly to the See also:absence of any system of co-operation among See also:libraries, each of which is only willing to pay for catalogues See also:relating exclusively to its own collections. It may be hoped that through the foundation of bibliographical institutes more work of this kind may be done. A standard description of any book must, as a rule, consist of the following sections, though in the case of works which have no typographical interest, some of the details may be advantageously omitted: (a) A literal transcript of the title-page, also of the See also:colophon, if any, and of any headings or other portions of the book serving to distinguish it from other issues; (b) Statements as to the size or form of the book, the gatherings or quires of which it is made up, with the total number of leaves, the measurement of an uncut copy or of the type-page, a note of the.types in which different parts of the book are printed, and a reference to any trustworthy See also:information already in See also:print; (c) A statement of the literary contents of the book and of the points at which they respectively begin; (d) A note giving any additional information which may be needed. (a) In transcribing the title-page and other parts of the book it is desirable not to omit intermediate words; if an omission is made it should be indicated by three dots placed close together. The end of a line should be indicated by an upright stroke.' It is a considerable gain to indicate to the See also:eye in what types the words transcribed are printed, i.e. whether in roman, See also:gothic letter, or See also:italic, and in each case whether in majuscules or See also:minuscules (" upper or See also:lower case "). To do this, however, adds greatly not only to the cost of printing, but also to the liability of error. If roman minuscules are used throughout, or roman for the text and italic for the imprint of colophon, the method of transliteration which the printer himself would have used should be adopted. Many of the best modern catalogues and bibliographies are disfigured by the occurrence in them of such forms as " qvinqve," " gveen," " Evrope," due to an unintelligent transliteration of the forms QVINQVE, QVEEN, EVROPE, as they occur on title-pages at a date when V " was the majuscule form of both " v " and " u ." If it is de- 1 Some bibliographers prefer to use See also:double strokes to avoid See also:con-See also:fusion with the old-fashioned long commas. Others use a single stroke to indicate the space between two lines and increase the number of strokes where the space left is wider than this.sired to retain the V forms the words should be printed in majuscules. If minuscules are used, the words should be transliterated as quinque, See also:queen, Europe, according to the practice of the old printers themselves. A troublesome question often arises as to what See also:notice should be taken in reproducing the misprints which frequently occur in the original titles. Bibliographers who have satisfied themselves (and their readers) of .their own accuracy may reproduce them in silence, though it will need See also:constant watchfulness to prevent the printer from " setting them right." Transcribers of only See also:average accuracy will consult their happiness by indicating the misprint in some way, and the frequent use of (sic), more especially when printed in italics, or of the German (!), being ugly, probably the simplest See also:plan is to add a note at the end stating that the misprints in question occur in the original. (b) The " size " of a book is a technical expression for the relation of the individual leaves to the sheet of paper of which they form a part. A book in-folio means one in which the paper has been folded once, so that each sheet has made two leaves. In a book in-quarto, each sheet has been folded twice so as to make four leaves. In an octavo another See also:fold has produced eight leaves, and so on for books in 16mo, 32mo and 64mo. For books in twelves, twenty-fours, &c., the paper has at some stage to be folded in three instead of in two, and there will be some difference in form according to the way in which
this is done. The size of a book printed on handmade paper " is very simply recognized by holding up a page to the See also:light. Certain See also: In the case of books printed on handmade paper, this is generally true of octavos, but to reduce the amount of sewing the earliest folios were usually arranged in tens, i.e. in gatherings of five sheets or ten leaves, while in Shakespeare's time English folios were mostly in sixes. In the same way quartos are often found made up in eights, and on the other hand the use of a half-sheet produces a gathering of only two leaves. When a See also:manuscript or early printed book was being prepared for binding, it was usual for the order in which the quires or gatherings were to be arranged to be indicated by See also:signing them with the Ietters of the See also:alphabet in their order, the alphabet generally used being the Latin, in which I stands for both I and J; V for both U and V, and there is no W. If more than twenty-three letters were needed the contractions for et, con, See also:rum and (less often) that for as, were used as additional signs, and for large books minuscules were used as well as majuscules, and the letters were doubled. In 1472 printed signatures came into use. If the quires or gatherings in the book to be described are signed in print, the signatures used should be quoted without brackets. If they are not signed, the order of the gatherings should be noted by the letters of the alphabet in square brackets. In each case the number of leaves in each gathering should be shown by See also:index-figures. Thus, six gatherings of eight leaves followed by one of four should be represented by the symbols A-F$ G'. The ` make-up "of an old book in original binding is usually sufficiently shown by the strings in the middle of each quire. In books which have been rebound help may sometimes be obtained from the fact that between (roughly) 1750 and 185o, a See also:period during which there was much rebinding of early books, the gatherings before being put into their new quires were mostly separately pressed, with the result that the See also:outer pages of each gathering are much smoother than the rest. But the only safe See also:guide to the make-up of an old book without printed signatures is a collation by means of the watermarks, i.e. the devices with which the papermaker as a rule marked each sheet (see PAPER). In a folio book one of every pair of leaves should have a watermark in the middle of the paper. In a quarto some pairs of leaves will have no watermark; in others it will be found divided by the fold of the paper. As the great See also:majority of books without printed signatures are in folio or quarto, 1 It may be noted that some confusion is caused in descriptions of books by the word " sheet," which should be restricted to the original sheet of paper which by folding becomes folio, quarto, &c., being applied also to the double-leaf of four pages. A word specially appropriated to this is greatly needed, and as gatherings of two, three, four, &c., of such double-leaves are known technically as duernions, ternions, See also:quaternions, &c., the double-leaf itself might well be called a: ` unit." the sequence of watermarked and un-watermarked leaves, if care-fully worked out, will mostly reveal the " make-up " of the successive gatherings. After the size and sequence of the gatherings has been stated, the total number of leaves should be noted, with a mention of any numeration of them given in the book. Any discrepancy between the total of the leaves assigned to the successive gatherings and the total as separately counted of course points to an error, and the reckonings must be repeated till they See also:tally. Errors in the printed enumeration of the leaves of old books are See also:common, and it is seldom necessary to point them out in detail. When reference has to be made to a particular page of an old book, the printed signatures offer the readiest means, an index number placed below the letter indicating the number of the leaf in the gathering and the addition of "recto " or " verso " marking the upper or under page of the leaf. Thus "X4 recto" (some bibliographers prefer the rather clumsier form " X 4 recto ") stands for the first page of the fourth leaf of the gathering signed X. Where there are no printed signatures the leaf-number may be given, the letters " a " and " b above the See also:numeral taking the place of " recto " and " verso " (leaf 99w). Where some leaves of a book are numbered and others not, if the reference is to the printed numeration this should be stated. Printed leaf numeration is found as early as 1470, and became common about ten years later. Printed pagination did not become common till nearly the middle of the 16th century. The foregoing details are all directed to showing which leaves of a book would be printed by the same pull of the press, how it was made up for binding, and how imperfections in any copy may be detected. They give little or no indication of the dimensions of the book. In the case of modern editions this may be done by adding one of the trade epithets, See also:pott, See also:foolscap, See also:crown, &c., to the name of the size, which when thus qualified denotes paper of a particular measurement (see PAPER). As, however, these measurements are not easily remembered, it is better to give the actual measurements in inches or millimetres of a page of an uncut copy. In old books uncut copies are not easily found, and it is useful instead of this to give the measurement in millimetres of the printed portion of the page (technically called the " type-page "), although this is subject to a variation of about 3 % in different copies, according to the degree to which they were damped for printing. To this is added a statement of the number of lines in the page measured. The character of the type (roman, gothic or italic) is next mentioned, and in the case of 15th-century books, its number in the sequence of founts used by the printer (see INCUNABULA). Finally a reference to any authoritative description already printed completes this portion of the entry. Thus the description of the collation of the first-dated book printed at See also:Augsburg, the Meditationes of S. See also:Bonaventura, printed by See also:Gunther Zainer in 1468, 'should read: Folio (a10, b-d', e-g1°, hs) 72 leaves. Type-page (1) 202 X 120 MM.; 35 lines. Type 1 (gothic letter). Hain 3557.
(c) While many books, and this is especially true of early ones, contain little or nothing beyond the See also:bare text of a well-known work, others are well provided, not only with commentaries which are almost sure to be mentioned on the title-page, or in the colophon (which the editor himself often wrote), but also with dedicatory letters, prefaces, complimentary verses, indexes and other accessories, the presence of which it is desirable to indicate. In these cases it is often convenient to show the entire contents of the book in the order in which they occur, noting the leaves or pages on which each begins. Thus in the first edition (1590) of the first three books of See also:Spenser's Faerie Queene, the literary contents, their order, and the space they occupy can be concisely noted by taking the successive gatherings according to their signatures and showing what comes on each page. Thus: Ai, recto, title; verso, See also:dedication, " To the Most Mightie and Magnificent Empresse See also: Bibliographers are 'See also:tow more modest. They recognize that the 1 Here specify the page measured. classification of human knowledge is a question for philosophers and men of See also:science, that the knowledge of See also:chemistry and of its history needed to make a See also:good bibliography of chemistry is altogether extrinsic to bibliography itself; that all, in fact, to which bibliography can pretend is to suggest certain general principles of arrangement and to point out to some extent how they may be applied. The principles are neither numerous nor recondite. To illustrate the history of printing, books may be arranged according to the places and printing-houses where they were produced. For the glorification of a See also:province or See also:county, they are sometimes grouped under the places where their authors were See also:born or resided. For special purposes, they may be arranged according to the language or See also:dialect in which they are written. But, speaking generally, the choice for a basis of arrangement rests between the alphabetical order of authors and titles, a See also:chronological order according to date of publication, a " logical " or alphabetical order according to subjects, and some combination of these methods. In exercising the choice the essential requisite is a really clear idea of the use to which the bibliography, when made, is to be put. If its chief object be to give detailed information about individual books, a strictly alphabetical arrangement " by authors and titles " (i.e. by the names of authors in their alphabetical order, and the titles of their books in alphabetical sequence under the names) will be the most useful, because it enables the student to obtain the information he seeks with the greatest ease. But while such an alphabetical arrangement offers the speediest See also:access to individual entries, it has no other merit, unless the main object of the bibliography be to show what each author has written. If it is desired to illustrate the history and development of a subject, or the literary See also:biography of an author, the books should be entered chronologically. If direction in reading is to be given, this can best be offered by a subject-index, in which the subjects are arranged alphabetically for speedy reference, and the books chronologically under the subject, so that the newest are always at the end. Lastly if the object is to show how far the whole field has been covered and what gaps remain to be filled, a class catalogue arranged according to what are considered the logical subdivisions of the subject has its advantages. It is important, however, to remember that, if the bulk of the bibliography is very large, a principle of arrangement which would be clear and useful on a small See also:scale may be lost in the quantity of pages over which it extends. An arrangement which cannot be quickly grasped, whatever See also:satisfaction it may give its author, is useless to readers, the measure of its inutility being the worn condition of the alphabetical index to which those who cannot carry a complicated " logical " arrangement in their heads are obliged to turn, in the first instance, to find what they want. It should be obvious that any system which necessitates a preliminary reference to a See also: But if the book had originally been arranged under Printers instead of Authors, it would have been far more difficult to use; its literary value would have been halved, and the See also:record of the output of each press, now instantly visible, would have been obscured by the See also:fuller entries causing it to extend over many pages. The Bibliography of Bibliography.—The zeal of students of early printing has provided the material for an almost exhaustive See also:list (see INCUNABULA) of the books printed in the 15th century still extant. Of those printed in the years 1501-1536 there is a tentative enumeration in the continuation of Panzer's Annales Typographici (1803), and materials are gradually being collected for improving and extending this. But the projects once formed for a universal bibliography have dwindled in proportion as the output of the press has increased, and the nearest approaches to such a work are the printed catalogue of the library of the British Museum, and that of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, now in progress. Of books of great rarity unrepresented in these catalogues a fairly sufficient record exists in Brunet's Manuel du libraire, the bibliographical collections of Mr W. C. See also:Hazlitt, the Bibliographer's See also:Manual by See also:Lowndes, and the other bibliographical works enumerated in the article on book-See also:collecting (q.v.). When a universal bibliography was recognized as an impossibility, patriotism suggested the compilation of national bibliographies, and the Bibliotheca Britannica of See also:Robert See also:Watt (Edinburgh, 1824) remains an extraordinary example of what the zeal of a single See also:man could accomplish in this direction, See also:Querard's La France litteraire (Paris, 1827-1839), while it gives fuller titles, is much less comprehensive, embracing mainly books of the 18th and early 19th centuries, and only such of these as appeared to the compiler to be written by " savants, historiens, et gens de lettres." In the works of See also:Heinsius (Allgemeines Bucherlexikon, 1700-1815, See also:Leipzig, 1812-1817), and See also:Kayser (Bucherlexikon, 1750, &c., Leipzig, 1834, &c.) Germany possesses a fine record of her output of books during the last two centuries, and since the organization of the book-trade, contemporary lists of books, with resumes and indexes issued at intervals, exist for most European countries. For the period before these became of importance in England much bibliographical material has been collected in the Catalogues of English Books printed up to the end of the year 164o, issued by the British Museum in 1884, by the John See also:Rylands library, See also:Manchester, in 1895, and by the University library, Cambridge, .in 1900-1906. A similar record of the See also:rich English collections in the Bodleian library, Oxford, remains a great desideratum. While these substitutes for a universal author catalogue have gradually been provided, similar contributions to a universal subject catalogue have been made in the form of innumerable special bibliographies compiled by students or bookmen interested in special subjects or departments of literature. The most important of these are enumerated in the bibliographical notes appended to articles in this See also:Encyclopaedia, but many attempts have been made to compile separate catalogues of them. The most See also:recent of these bibliographies of bibliographies naturally take over all that is of any value in their predecessors, and it may suffice therefore to make special mention of the following :—Bibliotheca bibliographica. Kritisches Verzeichniss der das Gesammtgebiet der Bibliographie betreffenden Litteralur des In- and Auslandes, in systematisches Ordnung bearheitet von Dr See also:Julius Petzholdt. Mit alphabetischen Namen and Sachregister (Leipzig, 1866), 8vo, pp. xii. 940; Manuel de bibliographie ginirale, par See also:Henri See also:Stein (Paris, 1898), 8vo, pp. xx. 896; Manuel de bibliographie historique, par Ch. V. See also:Langlois (Paris, 1901), 12mo, pp. Xi. 623; A See also:Register of National Bibliography. With a selection of the chief bibliographical works and articles printed in other Countries, by W. P. See also:Courtney (London, 1905), 8vo, pp. Viii. 631. It should also be noted that the Lisi of Books of Reference in the Reading-See also:Room of the British Museum, first published in 1889, and the Subject-index of the Modern Works added to the Library of the British Museum in the years 1881-1900, edited by G. K. See also:Fortescue (supplements published every five years), include entries of a vast number of bibliographical works, and that an eclectic list, with a valuable introduction, will be found in See also:Professor See also:Ferguson's Some Aspects of Bibliography (Edinburgh, 1900). (A. W. Additional information and CommentsDearsir I have gone through the website. It is really wonderfull, imaginative and all the more it is informative. My hearty congratulations for your creative effort and the service that you do for the mankind. I request you include the website: www:keralabiblesociety.com I am the secretary of this Kerala Catholic Bible Society. Thanking you very much. Dr. Cyrus Velamparampil Secretary, Kerala Catholic Bible Society.
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