CATALOGUE. – The word (from the Greek καταλέγω) properly indicates the orderly exposition of a category of objects; applied to bibliology, it therefore denotes the “ordered list of the works in a public or private collection,” serving as an instrument for the search for books.
As such, the c. differs from the inventory, which is a simple list of entries 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 arose with the formation of libraries themselves, and c. are therefore as old as book collections. For the pre-medieval period, however, there are insufficient data to distinguish their characteristics: the fragments on clay tablets of the c. of the library of Nineveh (7th cent. B.C.), now in the British Museum; the papyrus c. of the library of Memphis (3rd cent. B.C.); and the epigraphic one from Rhodes (2nd cent. B.C.) are not enough to illuminate the matter. Certain references to literary texts (cf. the Πίνακες of Callimachus) may suggest that the ancients already used alphabetical arrangement, which is instead encountered only rarely in medieval c., in which the distribution is almost always by subject and is, above all, inventory-like in character. 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 cent.; Passau, 923; Lorsch, 10th cent.; Regensburg, 975–1000; Pomposa, 1093; Hirschau, 1165; Nonantola, 1166; Montecassino, 11th and 12th centuries, etc.), and constitutes a document of the first importance for the history of culture. With Humanism and the consequent expansion of cultural needs, c. acquired greater systematic character (the famous one of the Vatican Library, compiled by Platina, with the collaboration of Demetrius of Lucca, in 1481, and provided with an alphabetical index of authors), which was gradually perfected with the emergence and consolidation of printing, when c. of books for commercial purposes also began to appear (the first was a list of Libri graeci impressi, published by Aldo Manuzio in 1498). In the 17th cent. the first subject c. appeared, such as Giustiniani’s Index universalis (Rome 1612), although they were not yet governed by well-defined rules; it was only in the 19th cent. that a genuine theory of cataloguing began, leading to the famous 91 rules of the Italian Antonio Panizzi: an exile in London, he formulated those regulations which, approved on 13 July 1839 by the superintendents of the British Museum and published at the beginning of vol. I of the Catalogue of printed books of the British Museum Library (London 1841), formed the basis for all subsequent legislation on library c. In Italy, in 1885, the Ministry of Education announced a competition for a work “which would lay down the most rational and practical rules for the formation of c.”; the competition was won by G.
Fumagalli with his work C. di biblioteche e indici bibliografici (Florence 1887); but only 26 years later was a single code of rules formulated for the compilation of c. in government libraries (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 Norme per il c. degli stampati, which remain a model of their kind.
II. VARIOUS TYPES OF C. – According to the particular criteria of arrangement and the purposes they serve, there are various types of c.:
1) the accession c., or register of entries, in which the bibliographical indication is generally given in summary form and according to the chronological order in which items entered the library. If it serves purely administrative purposes, it constitutes what is called an “inventory register”;
2) the topographical c., in which books are listed according to their arrangement on the shelves. It closely reflects the old medieval c. and is particularly useful for checking the holdings;
3) the systematic c., or subject c., in which the list is based on the scientific and logical relations linking one work to another. The arrangement is made according to specific bibliographical rules established by special classification systems (v.).
4) the subject c., in which the bibliographical arrangement follows the alphabetical order of the word expressing the subject (or “topic”) of a particular work. It differs from the preceding type because it brings together only works dealing with a specific subject, excluding those on related subjects, and therefore serves a narrower and less comprehensive search.
5) the alphabetical author c., in which works are listed according to the alphabetical sequence of the authors’ surnames, pseudonyms, or names. It is the most generally used type and serves to locate works for which the relevant information is already known.
6) the dictionary c., in which the alphabetical author c. and the subject c. are combined. It practically meets all the needs of the researcher, although it cannot satisfy an investigation in the broad sense as the systematic c. does, and is used at the Vatican Apostolic Library.
III. CARD CATALOGUING. – The old system of large registers, cumbersome and difficult to consult, as well as impractical to update, has now been replaced by the card system, both for “booklet” c., in which the cards are gathered in a certain number inside a cardboard cover secured with two screw bolts, and for “drawer” c., in which the cards (in a format now becoming generally standardized as the so-called international type, 125 × 75 mm.) are secured at the base by means of a metal rod passing through the hole made at the base of each card.
The cards, compiled from 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 “filing word,” that is, the word determining the alphabetical order in the c.; it consists of the author’s surname and name, or the first word of the title, or the modified title, or another conventional indication, depending on the type of c. for which the card is intended; b) the “title page” of the work transcribed ad litteram, with the exception of mottoes, dedications, etc.; c) the “bibliographical notes” (number of volumes, format, number of pages, plates, illustrations, etc.); d) the “typographical notes” (place of publication, publisher’s name, place of printing, printer’s name, date of printing); e) the “contents,” that is, when special requirements call for it, the division of the work (for example, in the case of a miscellany); f) the “shelfmark,” that is, the letters, figures, and conventional words referring to the location of the work in the library. The main card is called finished, or closed, when the work being catalogued is complete; it is called
in progress, or open, when the work is not finished at the time of entry.
Secondary cards are those compiled, following the same procedures as the main card, when it is considered appropriate to catalogue a work under different filing words (for example, for a critical edition of a classic, a main card will be made under the author’s name and a secondary card under that of the editor). A particular type of secondary card is the so-called “analytical” card, used to catalogue the individual writings contained in the same miscellany volume. In this case, after the author’s name and the title of the study, the card contains the indication “sta in...” followed by the filing word and the title of the main card.
The auxiliary cards are of three types: reference, cross-reference, and identity cards. The first serve to refer from one entry word to another, and contain only these two elements (e.g.: Alighieri, Dante - v.: Dante). Cross-reference cards serve to connect secondary titles or authors with the author and title of the main card: after the entry word they bear the indication « see also... », followed by the entry word and the title of the main card. Identity cards serve to refer from one graphic form to another of the same entry word, generally from the « vulgate » form to the scholarly one (e.g.: Omero, v.: Homerus).
Special rules, which are being made increasingly general and universal in character, govern the determination of the entry word, a particularly difficult matter for collective works, anonymous and pseudonymous works, as well as for periodicals, major reference works, and encyclopedias. Other rules concern the technical terms used for bibliographical and typographical indications, the use of capital letters, the spelling of foreign names, etc.
In the richer libraries it is also customary to prepare special c. for periodicals, for printed works belonging to particular collections, for reference works, and above all for incunabula, both because they have characteristics different from those of the modern book (signatures, colophon, printing privilege, etc...) and because their interest, even purely editorial, requires cataloguing that takes account, as the entry word, of the printer’s name.
The c. of manuscripts is always kept separate; its compilation requires special rules and assured competence on the part of the cataloguer. In this c. the essential elements of the card are three: the heading, that is, the author, when known, or else the « incipit » of the manuscript or the title, or even merely the subject when more precise data cannot be obtained; the body, that is, all the information relating to the work’s contents; and the codex notes, namely the shelfmark, date, writing material, format, etc.
For c. in archives, V. ARCHIVIO.
For modern c.: 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, there 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, Biblioteca bibliografica italica, 2 vols. and 4 supplements, 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, there 1941.
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 compared with the first of 1931), there 1939 (the work has been translated into Spanish and English; the French and Portuguese versions are in preparation, and the 3rd Italian ed. is about to be published). Alessandro Pratesi
CATALOGO BUCHERIANO (ANONIMO BUCHERIANO): V. BOUCHIER (BOUCHER), GILLES.