Black type for headings and for the references to volume and page add much to the clearness of an index, but some persons have a decided objection to the spottiness that is thus given to the page.
Tastes differ so much in respect to printing that it is not possible to indicate the best style to be adopted, and so each must choose for himself. One point, however, is of the greatest importance, and that is where a heading is continued over leaf it should be repeated with the addition of continued at the end of the heading. It is not unusual in such cases to see the dash used at the top of the page, which is absurd.
When the index has been put into print, the indexer has still to correct the press, and this is not always an easy matter, as the printer is scarcely likely to have understood all the necessarily elaborate and complicated marks used in preparing for the press. It will therefore still be some time before the end is in sight, and probably the indexer will see cause to agree with my statement on a former page, that in the case of a large index, when the indexing of the book itself is completed, little more than half of the total work is done.
CHAPTER VIII.
General or Universal Index.
"When Baillet, the learned author of the Jugemens des Savans, was appointed by M. de Lamoignon keeper of the exquisite library collected by that nobleman, he set to work to compile an index of the contents of all the books contained in it, and this he is said to have completed in August, 1682. After this date, however, the Index continued to grow, and it extended to thirty-two folio volumes, all written by Baillet's own hand."