Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/421

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of European history. M. Stein in his introduction claims to have profited by the mistakes of his immediate predecessor in the field of the bibliography of bibliographies, M. L^on Valine, whose Bibliogra- phic des bibliographies, in spite of its omissions and questionable arrangement, has continued to be of great assistance to workers in libraries. Lastly and most important of all, the author claims that the manual under review is a continuation and revision to date of Petz- holdt's Bibliotheca bibliographica, which has been generally admitted by bibliographers to be the most profound work yet published on the bibliography of bibliographies. We have a right, then, to expect much from M. Stein.

The title is somewhat misleading. The book contains titles not only of general bibliographical works, but also of special bibliographies which deal with the literature pertaining to all the arts and sciences. Moreover, it lists, in addition to bibliographies proper, books which contain valuable bibliographical matter in any quantity from two pages up.

The matter contained in the body of the work is divided by M. Stein into the following main divisions, with as many subdivisions as occasion requires : (i) bibliographies universelles, (2) bibliographies nationales, (3) sciences religieuses, (4) sciences philosophiques, (5) sciences juridiques, (6) sciences economiques et sociales, (7) sciences pedagogiques, (8) sciences pures, (9) sciences appliqu^es, (10) sciences medicales, (11) philologie et belles-lettres, (12) sciences gSographiques, (13) sciences historiques, (14) sciences auxiliaires de I'histoire, (15) archeologie et beaux-arts, (16) musique, (17) biographie. Thisclassifi- cation of the field of literature agrees in the main with the classifications current in French bibliographical publications. It differs a great deal from Petzholdt's classification, and seems to be no better and no worse than a dozen other schemes of division which one might name.

Following these seventeen main divisions, which constitute the body of the work, we find three long appendices, a supplement, and an index.

The supplement contains a list of such bibliographical books as have appeared while the manual was passing through the press, and also such of an earlier date as were omitted by accident. The introduc- tion to the book is dated December 31, 1896, but a great many works published in 1896 appear in the supplement. It also contains all books listed of date 1897 and a few of date 1898. It is unfortunate that the main lists were closed so long before the work was finally