CHAPTER I HISTORIANS, CATALOGUES, AND COLLECTIONS SECTION 1.- THE HISTORIANS The student of history should be able to recall without effort the names of the principal historians of his chosen field. With the names should be associated in his memory the important works of those historians, and of these works the scope and value should be known. As study becomes more intensive and the field of research narrower or more thoroughly explored, his bibliography of the subject should attain a comprehensiveness that includes all available material. Bibliographies are too often mere collections of names, series of titles which form a catalogue whose value varies with the knowledge possessed as to each item. Such insufficiency of equipment more often results from lack of a true conception on the part of the student of his needs than from unwillingness to gain the requisite knowledge. The most extended and minute knowledge of authors and their works is incomplete — is, we may say, of little worth -unless it includes a valuation of the items of evidence which bibliography furnishes. This appraisement must be the work of the student himself, and by his success must be measured his understanding of history. To acquire the power of correctly gauging the weight of this or that historian is by no means easy; but it is not impossible. The work of critics and essayists will give views worthy of most respectful consideration; but such work is too often special pleading, and in the last instance the student must, as did the critic, investigate for himself the personality, the environment, and the opportunities of the writer whose work is under examination. Until a knowledge of these is gained, even a study of original materials fails to reveal the meaning and purport of history. I BOSTON, JOHN (b. ; d. 1410): Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesia. II Valuable for its account of the libraries of England in the fourteenth century. Of slight worth in accounts of individual authors. The Catalogus has been reprinted in part in No. VII. Boston is the first of the English Bibliographers. LELAND, JOHN (b. 1506; d. 1552): De Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, ed. T. Hearne. Oxford, 1715. Reprinted London, 1770. Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis, ed. A. Hall. Oxford, 1709. — (A continuation of De Rebus, etc.) III Leland has been called "the Father of English Antiquaries." He was the librarian of Henry VIII., and as "King's antiquary" was commissioned to search for records and manuscripts in all cathedrals, colleges, abbeys and priors of England. He was successful in his search, and his works, of which the two principal ones are noted above, are of great value. Although Boston (No. I) antedates Leland, yet the latter's work was the first important English contribution to bibliographical knowledge and was the foundation for future publications of similar character. BALE, JOHN (b. 1495; d. 1563): Illustrium Majoris Britanniæ Scriptorum, hoc est, Angliæ, Cambriæ ac Scotia, Summarium. First published Ipswich, 1549. Then in several editions at London. Notably the first ed. 1559, under title Illustrium Majoris Britanniæ Scriptorum Catalogus, a Japheto sanctissimi Noah filio ad An. Dom. 1559. IV Bale was educated in the Catholic faith. He became a Protestant and a most zealous partisan. His life was a stormy one, and his writings reflect the bitterness engendered by the religious controversies in which he was actively engaged. Despite his bias and bitterness against all writers not of his faith, his work is yet of great value because of the minuteness with which it describes Protestant writers not elsewhere mentioned. PITS, JOHN (b. 1560; d. 1616): Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Anglicis, Tomus primus. Paris 1619. This work is also known as De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus. This is the fourth volume of Pits' work. The first three volumes have never been published. The manuscript is at Verdun, in the library of the collegiate church. V Pits was a violent Catholic partisan. His work furnishes the antithesis to that of Bale (No. III.) It is marred by the same suppressions, exaggerations and misrepresentations in favour of the Catholics as occur in the work of Bale in behalf of the Protestants. But the book is of value for its careful and comprehensive accounts of Catholic writers and their works. CAVE, WILLIAM (b. 1637; d. 1713): Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Litteraria a Christo nato usque ad Sæculum XIV. First published 1688. The best edition is that of the Clarendon Press, 1740-1743. This contains many additions by Cave and a continuation by Wharton and Grey bringing the work down to 1517. VI The work is in the main trustworthy. (See contra, Leclerc, in Bibliothèque universelle.) Cave was careful, accurate, and able to avail himself of existing sources. The volume is of especial value in its field of Church History. WARE, SIR JAMES (b. 1594; d. 1666): De Scriptoribus Hiberniæ. 1639. VII The first of the great bibliographies of Irish History. It is fair, but limited in scope and lacking in detail. Superseded by No. VII. TANNER, THOMAS (b. 1674; d. 1735): Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica. London, 1748, ed. D. Wilkins. "On all questions connected with the early literature of our nation, Tanner's Bibliotheca, notwithstanding its many omissions, defects and redundancies, is still the highest authority to which the inquirer can refer." See Hardy in No. VIII. The Bibliotheca is based on original research, and yet due regard was paid to the work of Leland, Bale and Pits. For details regarding later historians consult Allibone, S. A., Critical Dictionary of English Literature, with supplement by J. F. Kirk; Lee's Dictionary of National Biography, and other cyclopaedic works. SECTION 2. CATALOGUES OF SOURCES Catalogues of Sources are indispensable to the student. Their uses are varied. The student who is acquainted with the name of an author or editor turns to the catalogues for |