Dr. Robertson intimates that the lists of books which writers of the seventeenth century had been in the habit of prefixing to their books as evidence of their industry had come to be regarded as an ostentatious expression of their learning, and with some hesitancy he counted out to the reader his 717 titles; but Clavigero, as elsewhere pointed out,[1814] was richer in such resources. Humboldt, in his Vues,[1815] gives a list of the authors which he cites.
The class of dealers’ catalogues—we cite only such as have decided bibliographical value—begins to be conspicuous in Paul Trömel’s Bibliothèque Américaine (Leipzig, 1861), the best of the German ones, and in Charles Leclerc’s Bibliotheca Americana (Paris, 1867), much improved in his Bibliotheca Americana. Histoire, géographie, voyages, archéologie et linguistique des deux Amériques et des îles Philippines (Paris, 1878), with later supplements, constituting the best of the French catalogues, provided with an excellent index and a linguistic table, rendered necessary by the classified plan of the list.
The list formed by students in this field begins with the Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima of Harrisse (New York, 1866; additions, Paris, 1872), and includes the Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, précédée d’un coup d’œil sur les études américaines dans leurs rapports avec les études classiques, et suivie du tableau, par ordre alphabétique, des ouvrages de linguistique Américaine contenus dans le même volume (Paris, 1871) of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, who at that time had been twenty-five years engaged in the studies and travels which led to the gathering of his collection. The library, almost entire, was later joined to that of Alphonse L. Pinart, and was included in the latter’s Catalogue de livres rares et précieux, manuscrits et imprimés (Paris, 1883).
In 1866, Icazbalceta published at Mexico his Apuntes para un Catálogo de Escritores en lenguas indígenas de América,[1816] but of his great bibliographical work only one volume has as yet appeared: Bibliografía Américana del Siglo xvi. Primera parte. Catálogo razonado de libros impresos en México de 1539 à 1600, con biografías de autores y otras ilustraciones, precedido de una noticia acerca de la introducción de la imprenta en México (México, 1886).
Bandelier has embodied some of the results of his study in his “Notes on the Bibliography of Yucatan and Central America,” in the Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., n. s., i. pp. 82-118.
The catalogues of collections having special reference to aboriginal America are the following:—
Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de José Maria Andrade, 7,000 pièces et volumes, ayant rapport au Méxique ou imprimés dans ce pays (Leipzig, 1869).[1817]
Bibliotheca Mejicana: Books and manuscripts almost wholly relating to the history and literature of North and South America, particularly Mexico (London, 1869). This collection was formed by Augustin Fischer, chaplain to the Emperor Maximilian; but there were added to the catalogue some titles from the collection of Dr. C. H. Berendt.
Catalogue of the library of E. G. Squier, edited by Joseph Sabin (N. Y., 1876).