SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES.
AN interesting and curious pendant to Mr. H. B. Wheatley's 'Literary Blunders' might be made up of the errors which have occurred from time to time in booksellers' catalogues. These errors are sometimes grotesquely amusing, and are perhaps as often attributable to the ingenuity of the printer as to the ignorance of the cataloguer. Booksellers usually content themselves with seeing one proof of their catalogues, and as the variety of books dealt with is so great, it would need at least half a dozen careful revisions to secure anything like correctness. As a general rule, the catalogues of London booksellers are exceptionally free of blunders, provincial compilers (notably one or two in Birmingham) being far behind their Metropolitan rivals. The example of
| 'Mill, | John S., | On Liberty, |
| " | " | On the Floss,' |
is almost too well known to again bear repeating; the same may be said of the instance in which Ruskin's 'Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds' was catalogued as a book for farmers, and of that in which Swinburne's 'Under the Microscope' was classed among optical instruments. The cross-reference of
'God: see Fiske, J.,'
is a gem of absent-mindedness. Here are four more gems which appeared in the catalogue of a public library:
'Aristophanes: The Clouds of the Greek Text.'
'Boy's Own Annual: Magazine of Gymnastics.'
'Swedenborg: Conjugal Love and its Opposite.'
'Tiziano (Titian), Vicelli Da Cadore.'
The following is a good specimen of a bookseller's inspiration in reference to the entry 'Bible—2 vols., 12mo., Edin., 1811' in his catalogue: 'Sir Brunet and Dibdin in praise of this beautiful edition. As most nearly approaching unimaculateness a better copy than the present one could not be found.' This example is on a par with that in which an early Missal is catalogued as an 'extremely rare old printing and engraved work,' its author being 'Horæ B. V. Mariæ and usum Romanum,' whilst it is stated to be bound by 'Chamholfen Duru,' whoever he may be. Equally intelligent is another item from the same source, 'Newcastle (Marguis de Methode, etc.), œuvre auquel on apprende,' etc. Perhaps it was the cheapness—sixpence each—which prevented two items from having fuller descriptions:
'Horace, the Poems of, very interesting.'
'Jokely, very interesting, 12 months.'