College and Research Libraries numbers and expansions of subject fields. In recent months, for example, a librarian work- ing with large masses of materials on the Near East or Africa has found the LC offer- ing revisions and new numbers in quantity. . These examples are not cited to suggest that use of LC is best suited to the classified catalog, but they will, it is hoped, provide in some measure comparisons that may help in a consideration of the workability of one or the other of our major classification systems. As a practical consideration it is unlikely that any large library would be able or want to pioneer a new system for its entire collec- tion, but it might wish to provide a compli- mentary medium of subject analysis for some areas, and in this case a comparison of the potentialities of LC and DC would be useful. Finally, a word on the format and typog- raphy of this study. The cover has a simple and .attractive design but the use of repro- ductiOn of typed copy with unjustified outer margins is regrettable. We are sacrificing a gr~at deal to cost when as librarians we per- mit our works to be printed in an unattrac- tive style. That it seems to be a financial necessity we may recognize, but if other read- ers are as annoyed as the reviewer with the bleakness of the appearance and the awk- ward way that every initial use of the letter I was followed by an off-line letter, it might be possible to get ALA to search for better methods of printing. In order, however, to avoid closing this review on a minor note, it seems only fair to repeat, this study has been needed, and the profession should be grate- ful to the Rockefeller Foundation for its in- ~ere~t and concern in promoting the exam- matwn and study of one medium of subject contro~ that has been in partial eclipse for so~e t1me.-Mary Darrah Herrick) Chenery LzbraryJ Boston Universit y . Bibliography of Slavic Periodicals Bibliografija raspravaJ clanaka i knjizevnih radovia. I Nauka o knjizevnosti. I / 1 Knjiz- evnost opc.~nito. Teorija knjizevnosti. Up- ored?a knpzevnost. I/ 2 Historija jugoslav- enskih knJizevnosti. A-K-Zagreb, Yugoslav- 'MARCH) 1957 ia: Leksikografski zavod FNRJ , 1956. xm, 859p. The Yugoslav Lexicographic Institute in Zagreb has published the first volume of that series of the monumental Yugoslav Ency- clopaedia which will contain the bibliog- raphy of factual , polemical, critical, and lit- erary articles. This first volume covers the bibliography of literature and is divided into two. parts: (1) literature in general, theory of literature, and comparative literature (94 pages); and (2) the history of the South Slavic literatures, A-K (pages 95-677). There is al- so a subject index on pages 679-806, an index of pseudon yms and initials on pages 807-831, and an author index on pages 832- 859. All pages are double-columned. The purpose of this work is to provide ~ retrospective bibliography of works published in the periodicals in South Slavic languages from the end of the eighteenth century up to 1945, although the present volume ends with 1941. This was an enormous task, since the material is scattered in thousands of dif- ferent periodicals published over some 150 years. Prior to publication it was necessary to classify each of the entries under an ap- propriate subject. When complete, this bibliography will con- sist of about twenty- five volumes, of which the first fifteen will include: I-III , literature; IV-VII , Yugoslav literatures; VIII-XI , his- tory; XII-XIII, philology and foreign litera- tures; XIV and XV, art and the theater. Only articles from periodicals (including scholarly and popular magazines, newspapers, annuals, almanacs, calendars, etc.) are includ- ed. Books were omitted, since another bib- liography of Yugoslav books is in prepara- tion and is scheduled for publication at an · early date. Most of the materi al included in this bib- liography was published within the bound- aries of modern Yugoslavia. However, some publications from foreign countries were al- so included, especially if written by Yugo- slavs residing abroad or by foreigners espe- cially interested in studies of Yugoslav his- tory, culture or national characteristics. Work on this bibliography was hampered by the difficulty of securing information on the date of publication of several periodicals. In the case of some periodicals it is possible 165 that we may discover additional volumes at a ·later date. Thus, supplements to this bib- liography will be inevitable. A supplement containing entries for the war years, 1941-45, will also be published. The arrangement of entries is by broad subjects, and within each subject alphabet- ically by author. Each entry is numbered. On the whole it can be said that this work has been executed in conformity with sound bibliographical principles, and when com- plete, it will be of great value for Yugoslav scholars as well as for others who are famil- iar with the Serbo-Croatian language and are interesed in the literatures and cultures of the Yugoslav people.-Milimir DrazicJ Uni- versity of Kentucky Library. Printing and Publishing in Alsace Histoire de l'imprimerie alsacienne aux XVe et XV!e siecles. Par Frant;,:ois Ritter, Stras- bourg-Paris: F.-X. Le Roux, 1955. xvi, 631 p. (Publications de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Alsaciennes, Vol. 14.) It takes some daring to attempt a compre- hensive study of the complex history of print- ing and publishing in Alsace during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Problems involved touch on so many facets of cultural and social history that it becomes difficult to master the variety of topics and to evaluate the considerable literature; it is difficult also to add substantial and new information to competent studies like Charles Schmidt's His- loire litteraire de l'Alsace (1879), Karl Schor- bach's Der Strassburger Fruhdrucker ] ohann Mentelin (1932), or Paul Kristeller's Die Strassburger Buchillustration im XV. und im Anfang des XVI. ]ahrhunderts (1888). Yet the task is highly worth while. Alsace in general, and Strasbourg in particular, are key areas in the study of fifteenth and six- teenth century history. Publishing there pro- vides dramatic illustrations for the slow dis- appearance of the medieval world, the growth of humanism and its new learning, the reli- gious controversies before and during the Reformation, the interest in Germany's niedi- eval vernacular literature possibly to be inter- preted as the by-product of rising national- ism, the increased production of contempo- rary literature, including some rather bawdy writings for popular entertainment, the ac- complishments of city-sponsored secular ed- ucation, the development of modern science paralleled by the publication of handbooks for craftsmen, and the use of book illustra- tions to make the products of the press more attractive and more saleable, and also better understood. Frant;,:ois Ritter, well known to the histo- rian of early printing through the compilation of the Repertoire des livres alsaciens du XV!e siecle de la Bibliotheque nationale de Stras- bourg (1932- ), the Catalogue des incunables alsaciens de la Bibliotheque nationale de Strasbourg (1938), and the Catalogue des in- cunables et des livres du XV!e siecle de la Bibliotheque municipalede Strasbourg (1948), and known to literary historians as the co- author with Paul Heitz of the small but ex- tremely useful Versuch einer Zusammenstel- lung der deutschen Volksbucher des 15. und 16. ]ahrhunderts (1924) is well qualified to follow in the steps of the venerable Charles Schmidt and to write a comprehensive history of Alsatian printing and publishing. His history of Alsatian printing is divided into two main parts. Part I covers the fifteenth century. In its first chapter the author sur- veys the literature on the Gutenberg question with its complicated and at times highly spec- ulative controversies over the chronology of events preceding the publication of the 42- line Bible (including the most recent dis- cussion over the Miss ale speciale ). When he discusses the part which Strasbourg may have played in Gutenberg's early attempts, the au- thor naturally shows his patriotic feelings and justifiable bias, without accepting, however, suspect evidence, like the early sixteenth cen- tury claim that the Strasbourg printer Men- telin was the real inventor of the ars nova. Chapters two to six deal with the earliest Strasbourg printers, Mente 1 in, Eggestein, Rusch, and others~ Chapter seven, the last of Part I, is devoted to Alsatians who sought their fortunes away from home, among them Sixtus Riesinger (Naples), Michael Friburg- er (Paris, where he established the first press in France together with Gering and Crantz), 166 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES ---- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~