CATALOGUE. — The word (from the Greek καταλόγω) properly indicates the orderly exposition of a category of objects; applied to bibliography it thus denotes the “ordered list of the works in a public or private collection,” serving as a tool for book retrieval.
As such, the catalogue differs from the inventory, which is a simple accession list for administrative purposes, and from the bibliography, which is the systematic description of a given category of works without reference to any actual collection.
I. HISTORICAL NOTES
The need for an ordered list of the works contained in a library arises with the formation of libraries themselves, so that catalogues are as old as book collections. For the pre-medieval period, however, there is insufficient evidence to distinguish their characteristics: the fragments on clay tablets of the catalogue of the library of Nineveh (7th century B.C.), now in the British Museum, the papyrus catalogue of the library of Memphis (3rd century B.C.), and the epigraphic catalogue of Rhodes (2nd century B.C.) are not sufficient to clarify this point. Some references in literary texts (cf. the Πίνακες of Callimachus) may suggest that the ancients already used alphabetical arrangement, which is instead rarely found in medieval catalogues, where the distribution is almost always by subject and has, above all, the character of an inventory. The material is much more abundant for the Middle Ages, especially for monastic libraries (Fulda, 9th and 12th centuries; Bobbio, 9th–11th centuries; Freising, 9th century; Passau, 923; Lorsch, 10th century; Regensburg, 975–1000; Pomposa, 1093; Hirsau, 1165; Nonantola, 1166; Monte Cassino, 11th–12th centuries, etc.) and constitutes a primary document for the history of culture. With Humanism and the consequent expansion of cultural needs, catalogues became more systematic (notable is that of the Vatican compiled by Platina, with the collaboration of Demetrius of Lucca, in 1481, accompanied by an alphabetical index of authors), and this systematic approach continued to improve with the rise and establishment of printing, when booksellers’ catalogues also began to appear for commercial purposes (the first is a list of *Libri graeci impressi*, published by Aldus Manutius in 1498). In the 17th century the first subject catalogues appeared, such as the *Index universalis* of Giustiniani (Rome 1612), though they lacked well-defined rules; it was only in the 19th century that a true doctrine of cataloguing began, leading to the famous 91 rules of the Italian Antonio Panizzi. Exiled in London, he formulated those rules, which were approved on 13 July 1839 by the superintendents of the British Museum and published at the head of vol. 1 of the *Catalogue of printed books of the British Museum Library* (London 1841), and formed the basis for all subsequent legislation on library catalogues. In Italy, in 1885, the Ministry of Education announced a competition for a work “that would lay down the most rational and practical rules for the compilation of catalogues,” a competition won by G. Fumagalli with his work *C. di biblioteche e indici bibliografici* (Florence 1887); but it was only 26 years later that a unified code of rules for the compilation of catalogues in government libraries was formulated (decree of 11 June 1921), based on the fundamental publication of the American Library Association, *Cataloguing rules: author and title entries* (London-Chicago 1908). In 1930 the Vatican Apostolic Library also published its rules for the catalogue of printed works, which remain a model of the genre.II. VARIOUS TYPES OF CATALOGUE
Depending on the special criteria of arrangement and the purposes they serve, various types of catalogue exist:1) The accession catalogue, or entry register, in which the bibliographic information is given mostly in summary form and in chronological order of entry into the library. If it serves purely administrative purposes, it constitutes what is called an “inventory register”;
2) The topographical catalogue, in which the books are listed according to their arrangement on the shelves. It closely reflects the old medieval catalogues and is particularly useful for stock-taking;
3) The systematic or subject catalogue, in which the list is based on the scientific and logical relationships linking one work to another. The arrangement follows specific bibliographic rules established by special classification systems (v.);
4) The subject catalogue, in which the bibliographic arrangement is made according to the alphabetical order of the word expressing the subject (or “topic”) of a given work. It differs from the previous type because it brings together only works treating a specific subject, excluding those on related topics, and thus serves for a more restricted and less comprehensive search;
5) The alphabetical author catalogue, in which the works are listed in alphabetical order by surname, pseudonym, or author’s name. It is the most generally used and serves for retrieving works when their details are already known;
6) The dictionary catalogue, which combines the alphabetical author catalogue with the subject catalogue. It practically meets all the researcher’s needs, though it cannot satisfy a broad inquiry like the systematic catalogue, and is used in the Vatican Apostolic Library.
III. CARD CATALOGUING
The old system of bulky registers, difficult to consult and impractical for updating, has today been replaced by the card system, both for “booklet” catalogues, in which the cards are gathered in a certain number within a cardboard cover and fastened with two bolts, and for “drawer” catalogues, in which the cards (now generally in the so-called international format, 125 x 75 mm) are held at the base by a metal rod passing through the hole at the bottom of each card.The cards, compiled with the data provided by the title-page of the work to be catalogued, are divided into main, secondary, and auxiliary cards.
The main card contains the exact and complete description of the work and consists of six elements: a) the heading, i.e. the word that determines the alphabetical order in the catalogue, and which consists of the author’s surname and first name, or the first word of the title or a modified title, or another conventional indication, depending on the type of catalogue for which the card is intended; b) the “title-page” of the work transcribed *ad litteram*, except for mottos, dedications, etc.; c) the “bibliographic notes” (number of volumes, format, number of pages, plates, illustrations, etc.); d) the “typographic notes” (place of publication, publisher’s name, place of printing, printer’s name, date of printing); e) the “contents,” i.e. when special needs require it, the division of the work (e.g., for a miscellany); f) the “call number,” i.e. the letters, numbers, and conventional words that refer to the location of the work in the library. The main card is said to be finished, or closed, when the work being catalogued is complete; it is said
In progress, or open when, at the time of registration, the work is not yet completed.
Secondary cards are those compiled in the same manner as the main card when it is deemed appropriate to catalogue a work under different subject headings (e.g., for the critical edition of a classic, a main card will be made under the author’s name, and a second card under the editor’s name). A particular type of secondary card is the so-called "analytical" card, used to catalogue individual writings within a single miscellaneous volume. In this case, the card contains, after the author’s name and the title of the study, the reference "is in..." followed by the subject heading and the title of the main card.
Auxiliary cards are of three types: cross-reference, recall, and identity cards. The first serve to redirect from one subject heading to another and contain only these two elements (e.g.: Alighieri, Dante — V. Dante). Recall cards serve to link secondary titles or authors with the main author and title; after the subject heading, they bear the indication "vedi pure..." followed by the subject heading and the title of the main card. Identity cards are used to redirect from one graphic form to another of the same subject heading, generally from the "vulgate" form to the scientific one (e.g.: Omero, V. Homerus).
Special rules, which are increasingly generalized and universal in character, govern the determination of the subject heading, a task particularly difficult for collective works, anonymous works, pseudonymous works, as well as for periodicals, large reference works, and encyclopedias. Other rules pertain to technical terms for bibliographic and typographic indications, the use of capital letters, the spelling of foreign names, etc.
In the largest libraries, it is customary to create special cards for periodicals, printed materials from specific collections, reference works, and especially for incunabula, both because they differ from modern books (signatures, colophons, printing privileges, etc.) and because their interest, even purely editorial, requires cataloguing that takes into account, as the subject heading, the name of the printer.
Separate is the cataloguing of manuscripts, whose compilation requires special rules and reliable expertise on the part of the cataloguer. In this cataloguing, the essential elements of the card are three: the heading, i.e., the author, if known, or the "incipit" of the manuscript, or its title, or even just the subject when more precise data cannot be obtained; the body, i.e., all the indications relating to the content of the work; and the notes on the codex, namely, the shelfmark, date, writing material, format, etc.
For cataloguing in archives, V. ARCHIVE.
For modern catalogues: American Library Association, *List of subject headings for use in dictionary catal.*, 3rd ed., Chicago 1911; I. D. Brown, *Library classification and cataloguing*, London 1912; J. H. Quinn, *Library cataloguing*, 1913; W. W. Bishop, *Practical handbook of modern library cataloguing*, Baltimore 1914; Ch. A. Cutter, *Rules for a dictionary catalogue*, Washington 1914.
For Italy: G. Fumagalli, *C. di biblioteche e indici bibliografici*, Florence 1887; G. Ottino-G. Fumagalli, *Bibliotheca bibliographica italiana*, 2 vols. and 4 suppl., Rome 1889-1902; Società bibliografica italiana, *Progetto di norme uniche per la compilazione di c. alfabetici*, Pavia 1901; Ministero dell'educazione nazionale, *Regole per la compilazione del c. alfabetico*, Rome 1922 (reprinted in 1932); id., *Regole per la descrizione dei manoscritti e per la compilazione dell'indice generale degli incunaboli*, 1914.
For the Vatican Library: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, *Norme per l'indice alfabetico dei manoscritti*, Vatican City 1938; id., *Norme per il catalogo degli stampati*, 2nd ed. (revised and expanded from the first of 1931), 1939 (the work has been translated into Spanish and English; French and Portuguese versions are in preparation, and the 3rd Italian edition is about to be published). Alessandro Pratesi