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In the following essay I use the term "bibliography of bibliographies" only for works of universal scope. Accordingly I discuss neither such national bibliographies as Giuseppe Ottino and Giuseppe Fumagalli's Bibliotheca bibliographica italiana (Rome, 1889) nor such special lists as Gabriel Peignot's Répertoire des bibliographies spéciales (Paris, 1808) and A List of Bibliographies of Special Subjects (Chicago, 1902) issued by the John Crerar Library. I exclude also lists of reference works.

Other groups of books have demanded less arbitrary handling. In general, I have ruled out chapters on the bibliography of bibliographies in handbooks of library science. By the same token, I have included neither classified library catalogues, public or private, nor catalogues of private libraries owned by scholars or bibliographers in special fields. Finally I discuss only those subject indexes that were published before the bibliography of bibliographies was recognized as an independent scholarly undertaking, such as Conrad Gesner's Pandectae (1548) and Israel Spach's Nomenclator (1598). All later subject indexes in which the bibliography of bibliographies is subsidiary to other purposes, have been excluded.

The bibliographies cited by short titles or the author's names are listed in full in the Bibliography. I have given locations for rare books only, and then only for the copies that I have used. I have not tried to identify the works cited in quotations illustrating bibliographical method or to correct errors in such quoted titles, except when the book is difficult to identify or when a correction is pertinent to the discussion of the writer's bibliographical technique.

Various friends have generously read this essay in manuscript and have offered suggestions for its improvement. I am greatly indebted to them for this assistance. Dr. Arnold Weinberger of Harvard University Library has given me general advice and many comments on details. Taylor Starck of Harvard University, Lawrence S. Thompson, Director of the University of Kentucky Library, and Hugh G. Dick of the University of California at Los Angeles have given me good counsel. Anne E. Markley of the University of California, School of Librarianship read the manuscript with painstaking care and helped me to avoid many errors.