Private and Confidential. Papers Relating to the Alphabetical Catalogue of Printed Books.
London: George Woodfall and Son for the Trustees of the British Museum, 1847. Item #1194 Folio. 325 x 210 mm., (12 ¾ x 8 ¼ inches). 2, xxv, [1], 19-152 pp. Printed on blue paper. Original printed wrappers; some aging to the paper and a few cracks at the spine, otherwise a fine copy. Unpublished report, printed in a very few copies, of the long and painful history of the publication of the General Catalogue of Books, which was authorized by the Trustees in 1834 and to date in 1847, was still not published. The Papers is organized by chapters, beginning with a history of the “Orders” issued by the Trustees in June of 1759, that outline the plan for the publication of an “Alphabetical Catalogue of Their Printed Books” and includes all the documents issued by the Trustee on the subject to July of 1846. This is followed by a “Report by Henry Ellis”, Principal Librarian at the BM, about the printed catalogue dated July 25th of 1846, and a rebuttal by Antonio Panizzi, Keeper of Printed Books, which is highly critical of Ellis’s leadership on the project. The remaining 150 pages are devoted to the debates about how the catalogue should be prepared and the various reports that were published by Ellis and Panizzi in 1847. The Papers concludes with a series of “Resolutions” issued by the Trustees, written by W. R. Harrison, that summarizes the various reports and concludes with an articulation on the methodology and classification system that the catalogue must follow and empowers Panizzi to complete the manuscript catalogue and prepare it for publication. As one can see by the pagination listed above and the photograph included in this descriptions, pages 1-18 are missing in this copy; page [xxvi] begins Panizzi’s “Observations” followed by a half sheet of blank paper bound in and the followed by page 19, a summation of Panizzi’s position. Why are the other 18 pages of Panizzi’s remarks removed? By the physical evidence it suggests this was a conscious decision to have a copy without Panizzi’s statement. It is obvious from the text that is provided about the catalogue controversy that Panizzi was highly critical of Frederic Madden and others who were pushing for a short cut to save money on the writing and publishing of the Printed Catalogue. In the parts of the Papers that were published there is a record of Panizzi’s critique of the Trustees and politicians which at times was almost malicious. Was this copy, titled “Private and Confidential” the only one produced in this manner to censor the Keeper of Printed Books? Was it to protect the sensibility of a member of the Trustees? Or was it just a mistake of the printer? These are questions that offers future researchers the opportunity to explore more deeply the history of the General Catalogue of Books and Panizzi’s role in the process. The Papers is rare document that was privately printed and issued solely to Members of Trustees and a small number of British Museum Staff. Reading the biographies of Panizzi by Louis Fagan (1880) and Edward Miller (1976), the subject of the General Catalogue is one of the pivotal events in Panizzi’s tenure, and many of the governmental reports on the Library and its operations are used in crafting the history of Panizzi’s career at the BM. And yet this publication of the Papers, issued in 1847, is not mentioned by either biographer and no mention of it is made by C.B. Oldman, in his essay on the catalogue that appeared in 1958 and published under the title, English Libraries, 1800-1850, published by the University College London. There are no copies listed in OCLC but there are copies in the archive of the British Museum and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Price: $4,400.00