College and Research Libraries


have issued publications under such top-heavy 
designations. 

T h i s raises the practical point: do such lists 
really make a contribution, or are they mere-
ly the by-products of "busy work"? It may be 
argued that even if they are in the latter cat-
egory, theresults are possibly useful and should 
be made available. All well and good, but part 
of the $5.00 price tag on the Wisconsin list 
is due to the padding-out of headings. Each 
library must assess the value of these lists for 
itself, weighing the advantages against the 
drawbacks. Librarians need not be reminded 
that, an Oklahoma heading to the contrary, 
there is no Santa Claus Commission.—John 
Rather, School of Library Service, Columbia 
University. 

Cambridge Publishing 
The Evolution of Cambridge Publishing. By 

S. C. Roberts. N e w York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1956. 67 p. $2.75. 

Unlike the editors of Webster's Collegiate 
Dictionary, those Cantabrigians who guide the 
Sandars Lectures in Bibliography are well 
aware that bibliography is neither confined 
to the history or description of books and 
manuscripts, nor to lists of writings. During 
the past decade, this distinguished lecture ser-
ies has offered sound and varied fare, in-
cluding studies of manuscripts, incunabula, 
and the book trade as well as John Carter's 
penetrating comments on tendencies in book 
collecting. The Evolution of Cambridge Pub-
lishing, the latest to be published, again re-
minds us of this breadth of interest, for it 
concerns the history of publishing rather than 
the history of books. 

Although the university press at Cambridge 
has printed books since the sixteenth century, 
its publishing activities are fairly recent. In 
this volume of the Sandars Lectures for 1954, 
S. C. Roberts, master of Pembroke College 
and formerly secretary to the syndics of the 
press, presents a broad survey of publishing 
at Cambridge. Each of the three lectures is 
devoted to a particularly important period: 
the revival of the press under Richard Bent-
ley about 1700, the increased attention to 
publishing in the second half of the nine-
teenth century, and some significant develop-
ments of the twentieth century. T h e first two 

lectures supplement the author's History of 
the Cambridge University Press (1921) where 
the material on early publishing lacked the 
information provided by manuscripts since 
discovered and where the material on modern 
publishing was, with proper delicacy, subor-
dinated. Thus, the earlier book discusses works 
published or printed at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century with occasional references 
to the curators' minute-books; in the present 
volume, cash accounts are analyzed to show 
production costs. T h e "sad story of the pub-
lication of the Suidas Lexicon" (1705), in 
which, unwillingly, "the Curators were for the 
first time faced with the problems and respon-
sibilities of a publisher," is here told in de-
tail. 

T h e master of Pembroke then turns to the 
nineteenth century, discussing efforts to main-
tain the press on a profitable basis before con-
sidering the important publication projects: 
Arabia Deserta, the Revised Version, the Pitt 
Press series of textbooks, the Cambridge Mod-
ern History, and lesser works. These are re-
viewed in a rather cursory fashion; no at-
tempt is made to supply detailed information 
about production costs, number of copies 
sold, or even the editorial policies. Instead, 
emphasis is placed upon the growth of the 
publishing business conducted by the press, 
citing changes in organization as well as in 
kinds of books published. 

T h e final lecture describes "a few, only a 
few, features of the development of Cambridge 
printing and publishing in the present cen-
tury." But the few chosen are probably the 
most interesting: the syndics' experience with 
an American promoter in the publication of 
the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica, the typographical renaissance under 
Bruce Rogers and Stanley Morison, and the 
success of the press in publishing textbooks 
as well as occasional best-sellers. W h e n one 
remembers that, during part of this period, 
the author was secretary to the syndics, it is 
disappointing to find comparatively little 
new information. A less objective, more per-
sonal approach might have provided a bet-
ter insight into the evolution of Cambridge 
publishing at that time. However, now that 
this study has been completed, it is to be 
hoped that an autobiographical account will 
be prepared. Certainly there is much more to 
tell. 

274 C( . L E G E AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



This very handsome volume, with its fine 
plates, has been produced with the artistry 
and care characteristic of recent Cambridge 
University Press books. One could not imag-
ine a more appropriate format for this brief 
but useful contribution to the history of pub-
lishing.—Rollo G. Silver, School of Library 
Science, Simmons College. 

Bibliographies of Bibliographies 
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies. 

By Archer Taylor. N e w Brunswick, N. J.: 
Scarecrow Press, 1955. ix, 147 p. $3.50. 

In this notable contribution to professional 
literature, Professor Taylor returns to the con-
sideration of that "essence of an essence," 
that "sophisticated tool" which, within nar-
rower limits, he discussed with so much grace 
and learning, a decade ago, in his Renaissance 
Guides to Books. N o w he traces the history 
of bibliographies of bibliographies from Je-
rome the canonized to Besterman the blessed 
and beset. H e has restricted himself to "works 
of universal scope"; some 50 names or titles 
appear in the index. 

T o Conrad Gesner's Pandectae (1548) he 
gives credit for "an auspicious beginning of 
a very difficult aspect of bibliography," and 
for constituting "the first modern bibliog-
raphy of bibliographies," which "aimed at 
comprehensiveness and included works of all 
ages as far as they came to his knowledge." 
Francis Sweerts' Athenae Belgicae (1628) is 
said to have been not only "the first classified 
bibliography of bibliographies" but also "the 
first independent or almost independent bib-
liography of bibliographies," a qualified pri-
macy which, in its fullest sense, he reserves 
for Philip Labbe's Bibliotheca Bibliotheca-
rum (1652). 

There are interesting accounts of the efforts 
(so far fruitless) to recover Jodocus Dudinck's 

vanished Bibliothecariographia (1643), of the 
unpublished Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum of 
Cornelius a Beughem, and of the lost man-
uscript of Charles Moette's Bibliotheca Al-
phabetica, this last the only treatise on the 
subject which "can be dated in the eighteenth 
century." 

Professor Taylor refers to "the temptation 
that comes to every bibliographer to wander 
afield and include works of little pertinence 

to the task," and insists that "accuracy, indus-
try, and learning are not the only virtues re-
quired of a bibliographer," adding that "a 
bibliographer must be a practical man who 
sees how his book will be used." H e concedes 
that "any definition of a bibliography is dif-
ficult to formulate and even more difficult to 
adhere to." T h e penultimate chapter is de-
voted to modern "Periodical and Cooperative 
Enterprises." T h e conclusion reached is that 
"with all their faults and insufficiencies—and 
what human works lack them?—bibliogra-
phies of bibliographies are very valuable aids 
to scholars." "Each age," Professor Taylor 
avers, "must create its own bibliography of 
bibliographies." 

Professor Taylor alludes to his study as an 
"historical summary," but it is more than 
that: it is criticism at its finest and soundest, 
too.—David C. Mearns, Library of Congress. 

Books, Libraries & Librarians 
Books, Libraries, Librarians. Contributions 

to Library Literature. Selected by John 
David Marshall, Wayne Shirley and Louis 
Shores. Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String Press, 
1955. 432p. $6. 

T h e compilation offered by Mr. Marshall 
and his associates is intended to include a 
"representative selection" from the "body 
of professional literature" which possesses 
the "quality of readability," to provide "a 
source of pleasure and of profit to the pro-
fession's tyro and veteran alike," and to be 
"read by librarians and library school stu-
dents seeking recreation, instruction and 
perhaps even inspiration." (Introduction, 
p. [xi]) Inasmuch as more than a quarter of 
the authors are non-librarians, the meaning 
given to "body of professional literature" is 
a rather unusual and certainly a very broad 
one. But let it stand without argument. 

T h e work is divided into four sections: 
"Books and Reading," with 13 papers; "Li-
braries," with 11; "Librarians and Librar-
ianship," with 16; and four notable state-
ments of the librarian's profession, "The 
Freedom to Read," "The Library Bill of 
Rights," "The ALA Statement on Labeling," 
and the "Code of Ethics." 

This is, in several respects, an astonishing 
florilegium. Of the 40 articles and essays, 

MAY, 1956 275