College and Research Libraries one may carp, it is that not much account is taken of the human satisfaction one gets from handling a physical book whether (each in its own time) that be a cuneiform tablet, papyrus roll, vellum codex, or Library Quarterly. It is interesting to examine the opinions in this collection with some advanced in an earlier conference of men who were con- cerned primarily with book-making, pub- lished as Graphic Forms; the Arts in Rela- tion to the Book (Harvard University Press, 1949). T w o of its contributors who were troubled as to the future of the book offered solutions that might help to preserve it. Merle Armitage felt that the format should be brought up to date with text, picture, and design so conceived that the book's meaning would be expressed and thus help the reader. J. Donald Adams also considered the appeal of design important in competi- tion with other media, but he was more concerned with the quality of the book's content. Mr. Adams felt that the survival of the book depends primarily on the author. We can be grateful that The Future of the Book has been made available to a large circle of readers in such a format that it will be on hand for the next generation to ap- plaud or condemn.—Bertha M. Frick, School of Library Service, Columbia University. Catalogus der Niet-Nederlandse Drukken Catalogus der Niet-Nederlandse Drukken: 1500-1540, aanwezig in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek 's-Gravenhage. Comp. by R. Pennink. The Hague: Koninklijke Biblio- theek, 1955. xviii, 267 p. Dr. Brummel, director of the Royal Li- brary in The Hague, reminds the reader in his introduction that J. W. Holtrop and M. F. A. G. Campbell had at one time been intimately connected with this important library. Holtrop published in 1856 the cata- log of incunabula in the Royal Library. Campbell is well known among specialists as the author of the Annales de la typo- graphic neerlandaise au XVe siecle (1874). Dutch imprints of the post-incunabula pe- riod have been listed with locations, includ- ing those of the Royal Library, in Nijhoff and Kronenberg's Nederlandsche Bibliog- raphic van 1500 tot 1540 (1923-51). The present volume thus supplements these earlier reference books by rounding out the inventory of holdings of the Royal Library, as well as of its affiliates, the Museum Meer- manno-Westreenianum, the Nederduits Her- vormde Gemeente te Edam, and the Neder- landse Akademie van Wetenschappen. The Catalogus lists, in alphabetical order, 2,373 imprints produced between 1500 and 1540 outside the Low Countries. It goes be- yond a mere short-title list. By including ample and very well selected references, by most careful cross referencing, and through its exhaustive imprints index and the ap- parently complete list of former owners, the catalog deserves to be considered more than a location tool and will prove of consider- able value to historians of early printing. The collection as such is varied in nature and, while containing some very rare books, is not outstandingly rich in any area or in works of any particular author, perhaps with the one exception of Erasmus. Among places of printing Paris, Lyons, Venice, Strasbourg, Basle and Cologne predominate (as would be the case with practically any collection of books produced during the first half of the sixteenth century). Some of the lesser known imprints found in the catalog are Altenburg, Colmar, Reichenau, Angers, Rennes, St. Nicolaus-du-Port, Ortona, Saluzzo and Toscolano. Only four English imprints are listed, while we were surprised to locate through this catalog ten titles printed in Constantinople. The form of entry frequently differs, quite naturally, from that used in our li- brary catalogs. However, the descriptions will prove useful to rare book catalogers in this country. The excellence of bibliographi- cal details and the form of publication de- serve study and imitation.—Rudolf Hirsch, University of Pennsylvania Library. Catalogs of Incunabula Fifteenth-Century Books in the Library of Howard Lehman Goodhart; with a De- 446 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES scription and Check List by Phyllis Walter Goodhart Gordan. Stamford, Conn.: The Overbrook Press, 1955. 160 p., 11. Incunabula in the Yale University Libraries. [Catalog compiled] by Thomas E. Mar- ston with the collaboration of Leon Nemoy. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni- versity Library, 1955. 82 p. The reasons for presenting separate cata- logs of fifteenth-century printed books found in specific private or public collections are many; but foremost among them are un- doubtedly pride of ownership, the desire to make such collections better known and available to scholars, to add locations and corrections to Stillwell's Incunabula in American Libraries, and finally to list items not included in this census. Surely these reasons are legitimate and praiseworthy; we have no quarrel with anyone's willingness to add to the already considerable number of American incunabula catalogs. The two publications reviewed here pre- sent interesting contrasts, as well as common traits. Mrs. Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, and Bryn Mawr College which received the ma- jor share of the Howard Lehman Goodhart "Medieval Library," as well as Yale Uni- versity have every reason to be proud of their respective possessions. It would be almost impossible to make a comprehensive and fair comparison of the contents of these collections; we shall con- fine ourself to a few more or less obvious points: without an actual count it would seem that the Goodhart catalog describes something over 1,000 titles, while the Yale catalog lists about 2,000. A short but well- written expos6 explains the scope and con- tents of the former, while Messrs. Marston and Nemoy preface their compilation with a brief and somewhat dry explanation, de- signed simply to facilitate the use of the Yale incunabula catalog. The Goodhart library was brought to- gether by one enthusiastic collector to il- lustrate "the development of thought and education throughout the Middle Ages." Mr. Goodhart succeeded, even though litera- ture and the sciences are not too well rep- resented, perhaps because he considered these two areas of lesser importance in the development of medieval intellectual life than theology, law and the multitude of texts used in schools and universities of the period. The Goodhart library contains some, but not too many, exhibition pieces. The Yale collection of fifteenth-century printed books has come from many sources and is now located in the main university library, the Medical Library, the Law Li- brary and a few others. It is strong in sci- ence, contains a noticeable proportion of literary works, and its number of "rarissima" is considerably larger than at Bryn Mawr or in the private collection of the Goodhart- Gordans. Both collections are rich in the more ephemeral writings of contemporary authors, the political speeches, sermons, and textbooks which are often unjustly neglected because of their insignificant appearance, and the large output of printers like Plannck, Silver and Besicken in Rome, or Landsberg in Leipzig, who specialized in this type of production. The Goodhart col- lection contains few out-of-the-way imprints; Yale, which also emphasizes contents, can boast of quite a few "rara typographica." The Goodhart catalog adds approximately 50 items which have not hitherto been re- corded by Stillwell, Yale about twice that many. Added locations are supplied in both catalogs. The most striking difference between the two publications is their presentations and make-up. The Goodhart catalog is beauti- fully produced by the Overbrook Press; the listing is alphabetical by author, but in two parts, one devoted to the Goodhart collec- tion at Bryn -Mawr and the other to the part retained by Mrs. and Mr. Gordan. The descriptions are in short-title form accom- panied by minimal bibliographical refer- ences, always Stillwell, and Hain or Cop- inger or Reichling. The absence of refer- ences to the Gesamtkatalog for the early parts of the alphabet, even for items not listed by Stillwell, is surprising and hard to understand. The catalog does not contain references to illustrations, nor descriptive notes. The Yale catalog is lithoprinted and pro- duced economically. All items previously listed in Stillwell appear as a monotonous sequence of letters and numbers (e.g. A210, A215, A218, etc.) usable only in conjunction with Stillwell. Corrections to Stillwell follow SEPTEMBER, 1956 447 on page 47. The important part of the Yale catalog is the "Additions to Stillwell." In this part, the descriptions are more satis- factory and fuller than in the Goodhart cata- log; they include size, a good selection of bibliographical references and occasionally important notes on the contents, incipits, explicits, and in some few cases on collation and type. For this part the editors compiled a GW, Hain and Proctor concordance. Neither catalog contains the "luxury" of a name-index of editors, translators, and com- pilers (not appearing as entries), or indices of places of printing or names of printers. Both these catalogs, different as they are, are adequate for the specialist in incunab- ula. The introduction and pleasant presen- tation of the Goodhart volume will attract others, but they in turn will be severely handicapped by the paucity of information; neither catalog takes the trouble of even giving full citations of their bibliographical references. The Yale catalog was obviously planned as a tool; this task it performs well, but without charm or imagination. Both catalogs will be useful in spite of their limi- tations.—Rudolf Hirsch, University of Pennsylvania Library. Commentary on Prussian Instructions Kommentar zu den lnstruktionen fur die alphabetischen Kataloge der Preussischen Bibliotheken. By Hermann Fuchs. Wies- baden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955. 302 p. This commentary on the Prussian Instruc- tions is of special interest not only because of the prominence of the author, an ac- knowledged authority in the field who for many years directed the German Union Catalog, but also because of its appearance at a time when a revision of the instructions is already in progress. Like its predecessors, Luise Bernhardi's "Manual" and Dale Sass' "Explanations," which appeared respectively in 1923 and 1927, this "Commentary" is de- signed to help the German cataloger in his difficulties with the Prussian Instructions, which were adopted contemporaneously with the Anglo-American rules in 1908 but have since remained immune to change. The need of these interpretive aids has sometimes been cited as evidence of the con- tinued obsolescence of the Prussian Instruc- tions and of a need of their thorough re- vision. This need is now generally recog- nized, and a partial draft of a new code has been prepared and vigorously discussed by German librarians at their conference in Bremen in 1954. In view of this situation, the timeliness of Dr. Fuchs' commentary may appear questionable. The author takes cognizance of the fact, but expresses the be- lief that the Prussian Instructions will con- tinue to govern German cataloging for some time to come and that, in any event, the prospective revisions are likely to change fundamentally only the rules for anonymous works and works of corporate authors, which occupy the lesser part of his book. Actually, the publication of the commentary at this time may be regarded as quite apropos. For, in debating the pros and cons of the pro- posed revision at the Bremen conference, Dr. Fuchs recognized the compelling reasons for a revision, but felt that the enormous difficulties entailed in reconstruction of the catalogs based on the Prussian Instructions warranted another effort to try to make the instructions work (cf. "Fur und wider die Preussischen lnstruktionen," Zeitschrift fur Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie, v.l, p. 173-85). The commentary may thus be regarded, even if not so intended, as an il- lustration of the result of such an effort and as a demonstration of a possible alternative to revision. Furthermore, the work is really more than a commentary on the Prussian Instructions; it is an elaborate and reasoned exposition of an important cataloging sys- tem by one of its most competent exponents, and as such the commentary will be valuable not only to those who practice the system, but also to those who would revise and im- prove it as well as to all others engaged in a re-evaluation of their own cataloging systems. Although seemingly self-sufficient, the commentary does not dispense with the Prussian Instructions. T o use it, the cata- loger is required to have a thorough knowl- edge of the instructions. He can then turn to the commentary to find how the instruc- tions are to be interpreted and applied, how 448 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES