College and Research Libraries


Book Reviews 
A World Bibliography of Bibliographies. 

T h e o d o r e Besterman. Printed for the 

author at the University Press, O x f o r d , 

and published by him at 98 H e a t h 

street, London, N . W . 3. Sole agents 

for N o r t h and South A m e r i c a : T h e 

H . W . W i l s o n C o . , N e w Y o r k , 1939-

40. 2 vols. $60. 

T H I S ambitious title and the extrava-
gant claims in the Introduction are not 

confirmed by the w o r k itself. I t does 

contain some titles lacking in other bibli-

ographies but is not exhaustive in any 

field; accuracy w a s attempted but not 

enough to guarantee reliability; self-

imposed limitations and plain immaturity 

of judgment restrict the final product de-

plorably. 

An example.—A research student hunt-

ing for material on church history in 

France w i l l find four titles on page 266, 

volume I. If he w a n t s to consult the first 

item, Lacombe's Essai d'une bibliographie 

des ouvrages relatifs a Vhistoire religieuse 

de Paris, he may be prevented f r o m locat-

ing a copy just because Besterman did not 

add the simple information that it is an 

" E x t r a i t du Bulletin d'histoire et 

d'archaeologie, janvier, 1884." Besterman 

sometimes gives a series- or extract-note; 

the cases where he does not are very 

numerous. B u t more serious still is the 

fact that only four bibliographies are here 

mentioned out of a possible eight or more. 

A n d , incidentally, it is curious that G e r -

many, A u s t r i a , Italy, Sweden, and 

S w i t z e r l a n d are omitted in the list of 

countries under "Ecclesiastical history," 

whereas their church histories have re-

sulted in a number of bibliographies. 

Definition of field.—Besterman tried 

to set reasonable limits but defined his 

terms in such a w a y as to exclude w h a t 

w o u l d inevitably be expected. "Separately 

published bibliographies"—each of the 

three words gets you into t r o u b l e : W i l l 

you omit the best bibliography on Christian 

Science because it is in E . F . D a k i n ' s book, 

Mrs. Eddy ( N e w Y o r k , 1 9 3 0 ) , and not 

separately published ? Besterman does. 

W i l l you omit the most extensive bibliogra-

phy of Christian hymns in existence just 

because it is still in manuscript, not yet 

published ? Besterman omits bibliogra-

phies in manuscript. W i l l you omit very 

scholarly booksellers' catalogs, catalogs of 

special libraries, handbooks of the litera-

ture of certain subjects which are not 

strictly bibliographical in f o r m ? Bester-

man says he does, but he makes exceptions. 

" T h e inclusion of specialized commercial 

catalogues w o u l d have at least trebled the 

size of the present bibliography, an increase 

ludicrously out of proportion to the 

resulting g a i n , " is a ludicrous remark. It 

is true that to find all of the lists appended 

to books and in magazine articles w o u l d 

be an almost infinite u n d e r t a k i n g ; and yet 

it cannot be said that the search w o u l d 

be "unprofitable, since the vast m a j o r i t y 

of the resulting millions [ ! ] of entries 

w o u l d be w i t h o u t v a l u e . " If it is the 

compiler's purpose to serve the researcher, 

he should pursue the search in each subject 

far enough to locate the important bibli-

ographies and then give a hint as to w h a t 

is beyond the pale. 

Form of entry.—Having to choose be-

tween the "short-title" entry and the f u l l 

transcription of titles, Besterman says that 

his practice is to use "the shortest possible-

form consistent w i t h intelligibility and an 

DECEMBER., 1940 63 



adequate indication of the scope of the 

bibliography." It w o u l d be easy to give 

scores of examples showing that he often 

stops short of giving as much information 

as w o u l d be helpful. 

Scope.—Besterman emphasizes the claim 

that his w o r k "aims at completeness-

and i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y . " Y e t w e find that he 

w o r k e d almost entirely in the British 

M u s e u m and w i t h the services of the N a -

tional C e n t r a l L i b r a r y ; and a glance at 

his pages reveals that they are very heavily 

weighted in f a v o r of G r e a t Britain. 

" G r e a t B r i t a i n " as a topic takes 62 

columns, " A m e r i c a , " 17, " F r a n c e , " 14, 

" G e r m a n y , " 7, and " I t a l y " 6. If he had 

gone in for indexes to government docu-

ments of the other countries as he did for 

his o w n country, the proportions w o u l d 

have been different. B u t not having 

visited the Preussische Staatsbibliothek in 

Berlin, the K o n g e l i g e Bibliotek in Copen-

hagen, the K o n i n k l i j k e Bibliotheek in T h e 

H a g u e , the Biblioteca Apostolica V a t i c a n a , 

the L i b r a r y of Congress, etc., he could not 

be familiar w i t h their h o l d i n g s — b u t then 

w h y make such a claim of "interna-

tionality ?" 

Arrangement.—The Introduction de-

livers a diatribe against the classified 

arrangement for a bibliography, w i t h some 

good points and some w e a k ones. T h e 

main advantage to the alphabetical topical 

scheme used here is the avoidance of 

subjects in the index. B u t the topical 

plan involves ambiguities aplenty, an 

important one of w h i c h is the failure to 

associate kindred subjects. Some of the 

space saved is lost again w h e n certain 

titles have to be repeated in a number of 

places. 

Miscellaneous comments.—The w o r k is 

handsomely done and has ordinary virtues 

not listed here. H o w e v e r , a f e w stray 

reflections: T h e place of publication of 

an English w o r k published in L o n d o n is 

omitted, and of a French w o r k published 

in Paris. T h i s is explained in the Intro-

d u c t i o n ; but it w o u l d not have added 

much trouble to have printed these small 

words w h e r e needed. O n l y one place is 

g i v e n : " L i p s i a e , " for "Lipsiae et H a m -

b u r g i . " Publishers are not mentioned as 

a rule. T h e pagination methods are con-

fusing. Accents on G r e e k w o r d s are 

omitted. F u l l names and dates of authors 

are not attempted. N u m e r o u s typo-

graphical ( ? ) errors are evident. T o save 

space, comments are omitted. Instead, the 

number of titles in each bibliography is 

indicated in square brackets. T h i s has a 

value, but ( e . g . ) to give the information 

that a certain w o r k has " [ 3 0 0 . ] " entries 

doesn't help much w h e n it happens that 

that particular bibliography is practically 

worthless. T h e student w o u l d prefer that 

the space given to detailed collations for 

volumes of some l o n g serial sets had been 

used for critical comments throughout. 

A r e abridgements of specifications for 

boxes, brushing and sweeping, casks, 

cement, chains, clocks, etc., really biblio-

graphical material ? Abbreviations are 

not explained; some are self-evident. 

A n exhaustive list of omissions w o u l d 

involve re-doing the job for Besterman. 

T h e reviewer made a list of scores of 

to-be-expected but not-found bibliogra-

phies dealing w i t h religious subjects; but 

perhaps enough has been said to prove that 

this World Bibliography of Bibliographies 

lacks completeness as w e l l as depend-

a b i l i t y . — J o h n Barrow, Berea College, 

Berea, Ky. 

A Faculty Survey of the University of 

Pennsylvania Libraries. Bibliographical 

P l a n n i n g Committee of Philadelphia. 

64 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES