Measurement catalog
Messkatalog is an abbreviated and generalizing term for various periodically published bibliographical registers that appeared between 1564 and 1860 at the book fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig to provide information about the current range of books. The official titles of the individual directories changed over time. Novorum librorum, quos nundinae autumnales, Francoforti 1564. celebratae, venales exhiberunt, catalogus noted the first Frankfurt mass catalog 1564. "Mass catalog. Michaelis 1860" is the title of the last catalog of the various series. In fact, several competing series came on the market in the 16th and 17th centuries with the aim of listing titles at trade fairs. The project also spread to the English-speaking world, where an independent series of term catalogs ran from 1668 to 1711. Compared to the original German series, the English series had its own rhythm of publication and its own structure adapted to the English market.
The German measurement catalogs
The first German exhibition catalog was published by Georg Willer in Augsburg for the autumn fair in 1564 and offered 18 pages of the titles that the publisher brought back to his customers from the Frankfurt fair. His later catalogs make this clearer in the German subtitle: the title page of his Herbst-Mess catalog from 1569 noted a list of the new books that were for sale in public trucks at the Herbstmeß in Franckfurt in 1569, and by Georg Willern in Augsburg are available . The printing location changed to Frankfurt with the catalog of the autumn fair in 1567. The Martin Lechlers printing company acted as a cooperation partner. The relocation of the printing location shows that the catalog was much more widely distributed early on than Willer stated with regard to his Augsburg customers. From 1571 the project of looking back on titles that Willer brought to Augsburg for his customers gradually changed to one of previewing, in which the publishers who came to the trade fairs announced their titles. This is clearly visible in the appendices with which they drew attention to publishing projects that were still looking for subscribers, or with the last category of titles that were reported so late for the current exhibition catalog that they no longer properly fit into the previous ones and already in the sentence fixed categories of the catalog could be classified. At the trade fairs there was primarily a swap. Dealers came with a few titles in larger editions, exchanged these items with one another and thus expanded their domestic product ranges . The catalog allowed them to find their way around the entire range. It later served customers as a running bibliography and as an indication of who could later order interesting titles by post.
The measurement catalogs of the 16th century show slight variations in structure. From the beginning it was unclear whether one should report all Latin and then all German titles first - Willer's first catalog did this - or whether one should have a Latin and a German section in each category. The latter presupposed that both markets could be properly sorted under the same headings. Theology always opens - at the beginning in its two main denominations, Roman Catholic and Protestant; a section of Reformed theology was added in the late 16th century, but only found regularly in the catalogs of the 17th century. Law, medicine, historical books and books of the other arts were added in different arrangements. Poetry and music formed separate genres that effectively excluded novels. They are mostly classified under the historical ones, in older catalogs with the other titles, which appeared at the end without a clear structure.
Willer's first catalog structured (here with the quantities and percentages):
| category | number | proportion of | literary in today's sense |
| Libri theologici catholici non novi: hactenus vero in nostra Bibliotheca desiderati. | 4th | 1.6% | |
| Libri theologici protestantium latini, & alij. | 27 | 10.6% | |
| Libiri theologici catholicorum, latini & alij. | 40 | 15.7% | |
| Libri vtrioque ivre. | 32 | 12.5% | |
| Libri medicinales, latini & græci. | 14th | 5.5% | |
| Libri historici, tam sacri quàm prophani: latini, & c. | 17th | 6.7% | |
| Philosophici artiumque libri. | 34 | 13.3% | |
| Poetici libri in quolibet facultatum genere. | 9 | 3.5% | 9 |
| Astrologici et mathematici libri. | 9 | 3.5% | |
| German books in holy scripture, the protesting theologians. | 34 | 13.3% | |
| German catholic books in holy scriptures. | 8th | 3.1% | |
| German books in rights and writing. | 6th | 2.3% | |
| German books in Ertzney. | 7th | 2.7% | |
| Historical and history books. | 8th | 3.1% | |
| Mancherley books. | 6th | 2.3% | 3 |
| total | 255 | 99.7% | 12 |
| Share of Latin titles | 186 | 72.9% | |
| Share of poetic fictional titles | 12 | 4.7% |
The project of the Frankfurt catalog came under pressure at the end of the 16th century, firstly through the publication of a denominational rival who was supposed to take Catholic interests into account, and secondly through attempts by the city of Frankfurt to exert a controlling influence on the title listing with an imperial-privileged catalog and thirdly from 1594 through the beginning of the series of Leipzig catalogs, which set themselves the task of listing the production for the Frankfurt and Leipzig knives.
The double catalog published in Leipzig for both trade fairs turned out to be the forward-looking project and, apart from a few failures during the Thirty Years War , ran continuously until 1860. In the Leipzig catalogs, the other design changes took place in the course of the 18th century: 1711 the Conversion to an alphabetical listing within the rubrics and between 1760 and 1800 the dissolution of the old rubric system, which previously placed the sciences in the four faculties of theology, law, medicine and philosophical subjects in front. The reorganization that emerged with the catalogs around 1800 gave literature in the modern sense of the word an increasing importance of its own. Novels, previously listed under historical writings, were given their own categories in addition to plays, before the entire category system gave way to a generic division that mainly separated books and magazines and listed titles alphabetically below this division.
The English term catalogs
A first series of Mass catalogs was published in London between 1617 and 1628 by John Bills - initially as an English edition of the Frankfurt catalogs, then, between 1622 and 1626, expanded with a supplement that was supposed to make the English offer available. In 1668 the series of catalogs initially published by John Starkey opened under the title Mercurius Librarius, or, a catalog of books published in Michaelmas term , without any recognizable recourse to this project . The unwieldy title was simplified in 1670: From then on it was called Catalog of Books under the various dates. It was decided that the publication should be published four times a year. The Hillary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas masses set the dates in February, May, June or July and December or November. The project remained tied to the person of Robert Clavell, who appeared as a partner in 1670 and died on August 8, 1711. From 1708 the end of the series became apparent. Double catalogs appeared in 1708 and 1709. Between 1709 and 1711 there was a gap in the series of publications. The Easter catalog, which came out in 1711, is clearly under the attempt to re-establish the project. The structure was modernized Structure, but the catalog was not continued.
The series, published in London, promised the titles of the London publishers, but regularly offered publishers from Oxford , Cambridge , York , Edinburgh and, in rare cases, from abroad space to advertise. Dublin , Amsterdam , Paris and Geneva can be found under the places of publication in the individual catalogs of titles.
The term catalogs were financed per advertisement, which meant that publications that came onto the market for less than one shilling remained underrepresented. In 1670 this led to a competition project by the London publishers who garnished their own catalog with a complaint about the Starkey and Clavells project:
|
The publishers of the Mercurius Librarius have the presumptuous prices they charge for the individual title advertisements, as well as their incomplete collection, in which they neglect a lot and basically accept nothing that goes on sale for less than a shilling , caused the publication of this catalog in which these deficiencies have been remedied. |
If one compares the number of titles in the measurement catalogs of listed publications with the number of titles that can be determined via the ESTC , it becomes apparent that the catalogs usually announced around a quarter of the total number of titles printed. Goods of rapid consumption - so-called “fleeting writings” or “pieces fugitives” - remained underrepresented.
Outline and offer structure
The 161 issues of the Term Catalog that were printed between 1668 and 1711 show a continuous increase in the number of titles. The average catalog listed 109 titles under an average of 10 categories. Some catalogs came up with up to 13 groups; the minimum was six sections in the narrow spring catalog of 1708. With 40 to 50 titles, the first catalogs had come onto the market, which attracted the attack of the London publishers. The Easter catalog of 1689 listed 293 entries in the turmoil of the Glorious Revolution .
All catalogs opened with a theology section ( Divinity ), all closed with the title, which was only reprinted for the current mass. 86% of the catalogs had additional advertisements with notes from book projects that still have subscribers . There was no rule in the order of the other categories. History (and politics) repeatedly took second place. The rubric of miscellanies , the field of writings that could not be clearly classified, usually appeared before the reissued titles. The other categories such as medicine ( Physick ), mathematics (often also the roof for manuals of navigation and architecture), poetry and drama, music, maps and globes, playing cards and engravings, Latin (and French titles) appear regularly with their own entries , while the Heraldry and Astrology sections remained exceptions.
None of the catalogs had a separate section for literature or fiction. Novels were usually found indented under the history books, sometimes also under the "Miscellanies". The category “Poetry and Plays” was reserved for verse productions and plays.
The following table records the numbers of entries in the main categories for the individual decades, to which the rarer ones can be divided:
| Category / Decade | 1670s | 1680s | 1690s | 1700s |
| Divinity | 858 | 1233 | 1479 | 1439 |
| Histories | 234 | 387 | 333 | 261 |
| Physick | 102 | 87 | 92 | 76 |
| Mathematicks + navigation | 83 | 57 | 30th | 56 |
| Poetry + Plays | 223 | 231 | 239 | 186 |
| Music | 18th | 42 | 89 | 42 |
| Maps + Plates | 94 | 139 | 35 | 61 |
| Law | 81 | 75 | 44 | 39 |
| Libri Latini + François | 206 | 194 | 219 | 186 |
| Miscellanies | 726 | 900 | 780 | 626 |
| Reprinted | 1074 | 1009 | 1186 | 1152 |
| Total | 3699 | 4354 | 4526 | 4124 |
| ESTC information (comparative values) | 13235 (27.9%) | 20687 (21.0%) | 19837 (22.8%) | 22,757 (18.1%) |
A comparison of the numbers with the information provided by the ESTC confirms that the term catalogs remained highly selective. The ESTC lists titles ranging from 13,000 to 23,000 entries for each decade. The term catalog numbers remain at 20% −30% of this information. The catalogs of the 1690s show the most entries - the decade in the ESTC falls behind the 1680s. The last decade of the catalog is underrepresented after the continuation of the catalog after 1708. Basically, the political and religious daily literature is neglected in the catalogs.
The series ended in 1708/1709. The traditional catalog for Easter 1711 began with a new numbering in the overall project and remains remarkable with its attempt to revise the structure of the entire catalog. The unclearly unstructured category of reissued books is being dissolved and subordinated to the new main categories. They are 1) Divinity (theology), 2) History & Politicks (history and politics), 3) Mathematical Sciences (mathematical sciences), 4) Physick & Natural Philosophy (medicine and natural sciences), 5) Philology (philology), and 6 ) Poetry (poetry). The new arrangement confirmed the importance of the categories in which the political debates took place. The maintained separation between new releases and reissued titles stands for the market, which mainly defined itself as more current.
| category | title | percent |
| [DIVINITY.] | 71 | 37% |
| REPRINTED. | 24 | 13% |
| HISTORY AND POLITICKS. | 35 | 18% |
| REPRINTED. | 3 | 2% |
| MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES. | 11 | 6% |
| REPRINTED. | 4th | 2% |
| PHYSICAL AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. | 4th | 2% |
| REPRINTED. | 5 | 3% |
| PHILOLOGY. | 4th | 2% |
| REPRINTED. | 7th | 4% |
| POETRY. | 3 | 2% |
| REPRINTED. | 2 | 1 % |
| MISCELLANIES. | 18th | 9% |
| ADVERTISEMENT. | (1) | |
| Total | 191 | 100% |
expenditure
- Bernhard Fabian (Hrsg.): The measurement catalogs of the sixteenth century . Olms, Hildesheim [u. a.], Vol. 1 (1972) - Vol. 5 (2001).
- Catalogs of the Frankfurt and Leipzig book fairs 1594-1860 . olmsonline.de, subject to license
- Edward Arber (Ed.): The Term Catalogs, 1668-1709, With a Number for Easter Term, 1711 AD A Contemporary Bibliography of English Literature in the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William and Mary, and Anne. vols. 1-3. London: 1903/1905/1906. Scan of volume 1, 1668-1682 archive.org
literature
- Growoll: A. Three centuries of English booktrade bibliography . New York 1903 [Offers a list, compiled by W. Eames, of catalogs that appeared in English bookshops between 1595 and 1902.]
- Cyprian Bladgen: The Genesis of the Term Catalogs . In: The Library. s5-VIII (1) (1953). Pp. 30-35. library.oxfordjournals.org
- Peter Düsterdieck: Book production in the seventeenth century. An analysis of the mass catalogs for the years 1637 and 1658 . In: Archive for the history of the book industry, Vol. 14. Lfg. 2, pp. 163-219. Booksellers Association, Frankfurt am Main 1973.
- Peter Düsterdieck: Book production in the 17th century. an analysis of the measurement catalogs for the years 1637 and 1658 . In: Archive for the history of books , Vol. 14, pp. 163–220. ISSN 0066-6327 , de Gruyter, Berlin 1974
- Peter Lindenbaum: Authors and Publishers in the Late Seventeenth Century: New Evidence on their Relations . In: The Library. s6-17 (3) (1995) pp. 250-269. library.oxfordjournals.org
- Olaf Simons: Marteau's Europe or The Novel Before It Became Literature . Rodopi, Amsterdam / Atlanta 2001, pp. 36-50 and 61-65.
- Oliver Duntze: The Frankfurt and Leipzig measurement catalogs as book history sources . In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade: Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, vol. 169, Booksellers Association, Frankfurt / M. 2002, ISSN 0340-7373 .
- John Barnard, DF McKenzie (Ed.): The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain vol. 4. 1557-1695 . UP, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-66182-X .
- Stephan Füssel, Helmut Hiller: Dictionary of the book . 7th, fundamentally revised edition. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-465-03495-7 .
- Rudolf Blum: Pre and early history of the national general bibliography. Bookstore Vereinigung, Frankfurt am Main 1959, special print from the "Archive for the history of books", vol. 2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Olaf Simons: The English market of books: title statistics and a comparison with German data , at Critical Threads (2013) for data and details.
- ↑ Olaf Simons: The English market of books: title statistics and a comparison with German data , at Critical Threads (2013) for data and details.
- ^ The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (Cambridge, 1907-21), Volume IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton, Chapter XVIII. The Book-Trade, 1557-1625, § 26. Early Catalogs. Bartleby
- ↑ Easter Catalog No.1 1670 . In: The Term Catalogs, 1668-1709, With a Number for Easter Term, 1711 AD Ed. by Edward Arber, vols. 1. London 1903, SI41
- ^ John Barnard, DF McKenzie (Ed.): The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain vol. 4. 1557-1695 . UP, Cambridge 2002, p. 788; with a parallel calculation.
- ↑ Data again retrieved from Edward Arber's edition vol. 3, Catalog for Easter 1711 . See for the following table and a brief discussion of the data with a look at the German Messkataloge for 1711: Olaf Simons: Marteaus Europa or Der Roman before he became literature . Rodopi, Amsterdam / Atlanta 2001, pp. 36-50, 61-65.