While thinking about this month’s topic I was browsing the Bibliography section of our stacks and spied the set Repertorium Bibliographicum by Ludwig Hain. As the history and development of printing during the Early Modern Period is one of the specialties of our library research I thought that this would be a great item to highlight. Repertorium Bibliographicum is one of the indispensable works for the study of early printed books during the incunabula period. Even though it is more than 180 years old, and there are newer reference sources, it is still a basic resource for the study of books printed before 1500.

Looking to add some background on Mr. Hain I quickly found that there is very little recorded about his life. Born Ludwig Friedrich Theodor Hain in 1781, he worked privately as a bibliographer in the later part of his life while living in Munich (check out the WorldCat entry for Hain). It was during this latter part of this life that he researched and published his Repertorium Bibliographicum : in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD. typis expressi, ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius recensentur. Hain died in 1836 before finishing his research. The first edition, a four volumes in two set, was printed in Stuttgart from 1826-1838 (published in 1826, 1827, 1831 & 1838). It is noted that the entries compiled after his death, do not come up to the standard Hain maintained. Since then Repertorium Bibliographicum has gone through many reprintings and editions. Given the importance of his work as an editor and bibliographer, the number times the work has been reprinted, and the value it has brought to bibliography, it is quite surprising that there is so little biographical information on his life.

Repertorium Bibliographicum

Arranged alphabetically by author, Hain cataloged some 16,299 incunabula. Each incunabulum is numbered and includes detailed descriptive information on the specific copy of the book that Hain was cataloging. Many incunabula are available from only a single copy or even a fragment of a book. Even where there are multiple copies of a book there can be significant variations between individual specimens’ due to the printing techniques of the time. Hain personally reviewed the vast majority of these books, more than 13,000 volumes!

Hain was the first bibliographer to create a specific method for cataloging incunabula. While there were earlier bibliographers who published about the books of this period, their catalogs of incunabula did not follow any consistent structure. Hain, with his innovative methodology, brought order to the field of study.

As can be seen in our example, Hain’s entries are cryptic. C.C. McCulloch notes, in his article On Incunabula ¹, for books printed after 1500 cataloging is focused on the title page. For works published before 1500 title pages are rare or a title page was never printed. Information about the author or publisher was often omitted entirely. If recorded, details about the author, publisher, date and place of publication where generally included in the colophon at the end of the text. The last page of a text block is very likely to be damaged or lost. Also, bibliographical information might was not always deemed to be important enough to be recorded by the printer or publisher. To compound the problem when information is provided in the text it could be inaccurate. Again, it is highly likely that the reasons for these lacunae are primarily due to the book production and binding practices that were inherited from the manuscript trade.

For fifteenth century books Hain established the following rules:

The cataloger provides the author and the title (or if the author’s name is not known, the title alone); the place of publication, the printer’s name, the date and the size. Next is copied:

exactly and literally, including the abbreviations used, the first lines of the first leaf, marking the end of each line by an upright stroke. [You can see this in our example as a double vertical bar ‖ .] ²

Additional bibliographic information is collected, such as a description of the beginning of signatures and registration marks, and, if available, an exact copy of the colophon. When available, the number of leaves, size of page, number of columns, number of lines on the page, stop words, and any other information about the print production of the work is added to the record. Many other characteristics of the copy are included so that the catalog record can be quite detailed and provide enough information to identify a specific copy of a work.

In the sample page above, books that Hain physically reviewed are preceded by an asterisk. Where Hain did not see the book, the catalog number is not preceded by the asterisk and there is only a brief description.

The legacy of Hain and the Repertorium Bibliographicum

While other catalogers and historians of incunabula preceded Hain, his methodology has been followed by later researchers. Nearly fifty years elapsed after his death until the topic was revisited. As newly found incunabula were discovered and errors were uncovered, updates to entries became necessary, where Hain only had second hand information further information was uncovered. By 1900 it was estimated that there were more than 40,000 incunabula produced by the publishers and printers of the fifteenth century. Obviously supplements and revisions were in order. Successive printed works include:

• Copinger, Walter A. Supplement to Hain’s Repertorium Bibliographicum. Or, Collections Toward a New Edition of that Work. In two parts. London, H. Sotheran and co., 1895-1902. 2 vols. Contents: pt. 1. Nearly 7000 corrections of and additions to the collations of works described by Hain. 1895–pt. 2. Nearly 6000 volumes not referred to by Hain: v. 1. Abano-Ovidius. 1898. v. 2. Pablo-Zutphania. With addenda to parts I. and II. and Index by Konrad Burger. 1902.
• Reichling, Dietrich. Appendices ad Hainii-Copingeri Repertorivm Bibliographicvm: Additiones et Emendations. Monachii: svmptibvs I. Rosenthal, 1905-11. 7 vols.
• Stillwell, Margaret Bingham. Incunabula and Americana, 1450-1800: A Key to Bibliographical Study. New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. Compiled by Margaret Stillwell, Librarian at Brown University.
• Berkowitz, David Sandler. Bibliotheca Bibliographica Incunabula: A Manual of Bibliographical Guides to Inventories of Printing, of Holdings, and of Reference Aids. With an Appendix of useful Information on the Place-Names and Dating… Waltham, Massachusetts, 1967.

The most notable descendants of Hain are found in the national and academic Online Census Databases and Catalogs of which the primary examples are:

• Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) : The primary resource for locating fifteenth-century printings. ISTC is an international register of nearly every item printed from movable type before 1501. (Includes cross-reference links to GW and BSB catalogues.)
• Gesamatkatalog der Wiegendruke (GW) : This database appears in conjunction with the print edition of the ‘Union Catalogue of Incunabula’ (GW) which lists all 15th century prints in alphabetical order.
• Catalogue of Incunabula of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB-Ink) : The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek houses one of the largest collections of incunabula (the largest collection in Germany), with more than 9,756 print editions.

We are all indebted to Hain and the Repertorium Bibliographicum.

The DLWA library has a number of these references, but here is the citation for the set that started tale.

Worldcat: Link

• Title: Repertorium bibliographicum: in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD. typis expressi, ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius recensentur
• Publisher: Milano : Görlich, 1966
• Language: varies
• Setting: Incunabula of the Early Modern Period
• DLWA Call Number: Z240 .H15 1966

———————-

1. C. C. McCulloch, Jr. On incunabula. Publication: Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1915 Jul; 5(1): 1-15.
2. Ibid. p. 9.

At the beginning of the Early Modern Period in Europe, roughly the mid 15th century to the late 18th century, readers were usually people of means or in an occupation that that required access to written materials. Both secular and religious centers like Universities and Monasteries were the hub of the book trade. Indeed, the advent of printing with movable type in the 1450’s marks the early boundary of this period. For a time, the print trade catered to and coexisted with the traditional manuscript clientele. Thus, printed materials tended to be of scholarly subjects and were predominantly in Latin. But throughout this time there was a current of populist bookmaking that could be acquired by the average reader of the time. The Biblia Pauperum or “Bible of the Poor”, and a number of Donatus were produced with the poorly educated and illiterate in mind. Heavily illustrated using woodcuts, these books could be easily understood and were often used to dramatize the sermons of clerics and monks.

So, the tradition was in place, as the spread of printing swept over Europe, for an inexpensive product aimed at the “common folk”. Concurrently, more people were being educated in the basics of reading. Many children were given rudimentary reading instruction, and in some cases better that we give our children today as Latin and the Classics were also taught. Because of the growing competition between printing houses, materials were easier to acquire, for example it was said that every household along the small rivers and creeks in the Netherlands produced paper for the printing trade. Also, as print shops spread, the cost of publishing could be evened out by printing odd jobs in between major publications. This is not to say that an individual would strike it rich as a printer and publisher – Boom and Bust were a constant companion to the trade during this time.

All that was needed for the explosion of available reading materials was a vehicle of distribution to place books in the hands of the many. As is always the case, where there is a market, someone will fill the need, and for our story, we are introduced to the Chapman. Derived from Old English word ceap (‘barter, business, dealing’), the Chapman was a wandering seller of many diverse items. One of these items was the Chapbook.

From: Chap-books of the eighteenth century by John Ashton

Almost from the start of the Early Modern Period these little cheap books were produced by the thousands. Today considered tracts or pamphlets they were printed on cheap paper often using only a single sheet for the whole book. The sheet was then folded to make eight to twenty-four pages. They were rarely bound and were most often covered with a blank sheet of paper. Selling for about a penny they were affordable for most people and were read to the family or folks in the pub. From the mid-16th century production was especially heavy in Scotland and England where the appeal of the romantic or moral tale produced a steady following. But, it is precisely because of their flimsy construction and populist content that few have survived to this day.

Our library has two examples from the late 18th and early 19th century. The first is from 1796 and is the moral tale of “The History of Mary Wood. The House-maid. Or, the Danger of false Excuses”.

Hanna More began publishing the “Cheap Repository of Moral and Religious Tracts” in 1795. She wanted to provide reading materials that were not of the low moral character of many of the chapbooks in circulation at the time. Between 1796 and 1817 more than 200 titles were published individually and reprinted as collected editions until the 1830. There were several printers and distributors including Samuel Hazard of Bath and John Marshall, located in Aldermary Churchyard, London.

Mr. Heartwell is the “Worthy Clergyman” of a country parish, he was sitting on his porch when he saw a figure running down the hill towards his house. “O fir, fave me! For pity’s sake hide me in you houfe”. He recognized her as Mary Wood the daughter of the Matthew Wood a now diseased parishioner. He had helped Mary by finding her employment as a maid with a well off family after her father died. He took Mary into the house and soon a large number of people came racing down the hill looking for Mary. Upon his inquiry Mr. Heartwell found that Mary was wanted for theft from her master’s house. Mr. Heartwell takes pity on her and through a number of different adventures Mary continues to find herself in trouble. Eventually Mr. Heartwell sends Mary a distance 50 miles away, to another clergyman, in hopes of finding better circumstances for her. But on the trip, she became weak eventually succumbed to her sickness.

Even though she repented in the end, for Mary Wood, the lying house-maid, death was “brought on by grief and shame at eighteen years of age, was the consequence of bad company, false promises and false excuses”. The tale concludes:

May all who read this story, learn to walk in the straight paths of truth. The way of duty is the way of safety. But “the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth, while the righteous is bold as a lion”.

It was hoped that Hanna More’s morality tale would provide encouragement for many who would follow Mary’s path, that they would learn from her folly and walk the higher path.

The second example is also from the “Cheap Repository” by Hanna More. Printed from a later edition, about 1800, it is the tale “ ‘Tis all for the Best ”. Following a similar narrative the protagonist falls from a high social position to that of a beggar.

Mrs. Simpson expired soon after, in a frame of mind which convinced her new friend that “God’s ways are not our ways.” But was left with her plea “Believe my dying words – ALL IS FOR THE BEST.

While contemporary analysis of this style of Chapbook is rather harsh, focusing on their perceived attempt to keep the lower classes in their place, one critic in the 1860’s noted:

We welcome the re-issue of both tales. Written at a time when it was necessary to counteract the exaggerated political aspirations set forth in the publications of the Jacobins and “levelers,” they may now serve to counteract the pernicious reading which we fear is in the hands of too many of our youth to-day, especially in the large towns. The book is tastily got up and well printed, and, with bright cover and neat illustrations, costs but a penny.

Worldcat: Link

• Title: The History of Mary Wood. The House-maid. Or, the Danger of false Excuses
• Publisher: Dublin : Sold by William Watson, and Son, No. 7, Capel-Street, Printers to the Cheap-Repository for Religious and Moral Tracts, And by the Booksellers, Chapmen and Hawkers, in Town and Country, [1797?]
• Language: English
• Setting: Early Modern Period, Britain
• DLWA Call Number: PR3605.M6 A6 1796a

Worldcat: Link

• Title: ‘Tis all for the Best
• Publisher: London, [1800?]
• Language: English
• Setting: Early Modern Period, Britain
• DLWA Call Number: PR3605.M6 A6 1800?