In the paragraph following each item from the manuscript list, the editor attempts to give the author’s name (with dates of his birth and death), to fill out the short title somewhat when it seems interesting or helpful in identification, and to show the place of publication, the name of the publisher, the year of publication, and the format. The letters “V” (for “U”) and “I” (for “J”) are usually given the English equivalents. Otherwise the short title follows the spelling and punctuation of the title page of the copy examined (usually a copy in one of the key libraries), with capitalization for only the first word of the title and for proper names.
The line immediately below this paragraph is reserved for the number, if any, in the Short-Title Catalogue (abbreviated “STC” for the period ending 1640 and “Wing” for the later period) and specialized bibliographies; and for a short list of libraries in which a copy of the exact edition may be consulted. Then follows, for some items, a second paragraph of pertinent editorial comment.
All the items in Congreve’s list have been identified, at least tentatively. There is most uncertainty, perhaps, about Numbers 114, 368, 375, and 412. Besides these, twenty others, though well enough known in some edition, have not been found in any library in the identical edition of Congreve’s list: Numbers 9, 30, 113, 129, 130, 197, 210, 217, 240, 271, 277, 296, 323, 345, 366, 376, 435, 569, 578, and 637. Furthermore, Numbers 160, 185, 211, 379, 394, 567, and 647 present difficulties perhaps due to errors on the part of the person making the manuscript entry.
It will be noticed that forty or more of the items have not been found in the format given by the manuscript list. This discrepancy may be explained, at least in part, by the tendency of the makers of the list to judge the format merely by size. For example, a large duodecimo (Number 528) is called an octavo, while many small octavos (Numbers 159, 346, 378, 516, etc.) are called duodecimos. The discrepancies involve chiefly the smaller volumes. Not a single folio volume is involved.
The finding lists of libraries (where copies of the exact editions in Congreve’s list may be consulted) have been arranged geographically, including usually one European library and several American libraries located from New England to the Pacific Coast. The ideal has been to find a copy in each of seven key libraries: the British Museum (Europe), Harvard (New England), The New York Public Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Library of Congress (Middle Atlantic), the Newberry Library (Middle West), and the Huntington Library (West). The editor has checked Congreve’s list with the catalogues of the seven key libraries, except for The New York Public Library and the Newberry Library, where the checking was done by members of the respective library staffs.
Occasionally an ideal distribution in the seven libraries is found, as for Numbers 10, 23, 42, 44, 88, 90, 99, and 100. Whenever an edition is not available in the key library, an effort has been made to find it in another library of the region. For books not at the British Museum, references are made to the Bodleian, the Bibliothèque Nationale, or other European libraries. Books not at Harvard are most frequently found at Yale or the Boston Public Library. Those not at the Huntington Library are frequently at the nearby William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
Of the American libraries in the finding lists, exclusive of the key libraries, the editor has examined practically all editions cited at the Boston Public Library, the Yale Library, and the Clark Library. Other American libraries are, for the most part, cited on the authority of the Union Catalog of the Library of Congress. Of the European libraries, exclusive of the British Museum, the editor has examined practically all editions cited at libraries in Paris, Brussels, The Hague, Leiden, Amsterdam, Florence, Rome, Oxford, and Cambridge, and at the various legal and medical libraries in London. Other English libraries are cited on the authority of the National Central Library, London.
In Congreve’s list about sixty-two of the 659 entries are cross references or else duplicate entries. On the other hand, some entries account for more than a single title. Numbers 405–408, for example, include a total of twenty-six titles. There are approximately 620 separate titles in the list. Of these 620, about 481 (78 per cent) may be found in the British Museum, 338 (55 per cent) in the Harvard Library, 192 (31 per cent) in the Library of Congress, 188 (30 per cent) in The New York Public Library, 186 (30 per cent) in the Huntington Library, 184 (30 per cent) in the Newberry Library, and 148 (24 per cent) in the Folger Shakespeare Library. At the Bodleian may be consulted about thirty-four titles not in the British Museum; and at the Bibliothèque Nationale, about thirty-seven titles in neither the British Museum nor the Bodleian. At Yale there are about sixty-eight titles not at Harvard; and at the Clark Library, about forty-seven titles not at the Huntington.
[ Using Congreve’s Book List]
We may well ask, What are some of the uses that can be made of Congreve’s book list? For one thing, it may be studied as a carefully selected private library of the period. What authors, what editions, what subjects are to be found in such a library? Which of Congreve’s contemporaries are represented? Which of the current books seemed important enough for a fellow writer to buy or to subscribe for in advance of publication? To what extent did the literature of ancient Greece, of Rome, of modern Italy, of France, of Spain, of Germany find its way into a private library in England’s Augustan Age? And to what extent were such books in their original language? One scholar has found in Congreve’s book list the information he needed about certain early editions of Horace. Another, inquiring into the Italian influence on England during the eighteenth century, has found a partial answer in the Italian books and in the books about Italy set down in Congreve’s list.