Working Group on Retrospective Bibliographies

Remit

Early in 2022, CERL established a Working Group on Retrospective Bibliographies (RB) in order to:

The members for the RB Working Group are listed below.

Introduction

The Working Group's main focus is to identify electronic resources with bibliographical descriptions for nations' and regions' print cultures (up to 1850). Our dream is that one day these electronic bibliographies are linked and together offer a comprehensive overview of European prints before 1850. Libraries could then use this as the foundation for Linked Data for early printed books and link their catalogue records to relevant RB records.

In the years of book production to 1850 (and our collecting practices until the modern day), geographical boundaries have been fluid. It is therefore important to determine what geographical region is covered by any given retrospective bibliography project. This selection criterium, and several others (only books printed in the region, or also by people from the region residing elsewhere, coverage only of collections currently in the region, or also regional output now held elswhere, etc.) need to be taken into account.

In the Heritage of the Printed Book database, records for collections and records from retrospective bibliographies currently intermingle. The work of this Working Group will hopefully help CERL on its way to distinguish these two types of records and work with CERL member libraries to enrich catalogue records with references to permanent identifiers employed in Retrospective Bibliographies.

Conference 2023

The title of the conference was Retrospective Bibliographies and European Print Cultures to 1830 – Challenges and perspectives in the digital age and it will take place on 29 and 30 June 2023 at the Ossolineum Library in Wrocław.

The programme is available here.

The aim of the conference is to ensure that people who create RBs are aware of work in other countries and that sharing of data is part of the plan from the outset (which means e.g. ensuring there are stable identifiers, that standards are rigorously adhered to). We would also like to start a conversation about how CERL should treat these RBs in its data infrastructure? Currently there are three flavours at CERL, and we would like to explore with the conference partipants what is the best approach going forward:

List of Retrospective Bibliographies in Europe

This list was created by Olga Tkachuk (Ossoliński National Institute, Wrocław) and Chana Algarvio (University of Toronto, Canada) and covers bibliographies (national, regional, language-specific) in Europe. It is not comprehensive and will gradually be expanded with more detailed information.

Albania / Andorra / Austria / Belarus / Belgium (Flanders) / Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bulgaria / Croatia / Cyprus / Czech Republic / Denmark/ England/ Estonia / Finland / France / Germany / Greece / Hungary / Iceland / Ireland / Italy / Latvia / Liechtenstein / Lithuania / Luxembourg / Malta / Moldavia / Monaco / Montenegro / Netherlands / North Macedonia / Northern Ireland / Norway / Poland / Portugal / Romania / San Marino / Scotland
Serbia / Slovakia / Slovenia / Spain / Sweden / Switzerland / Ukraine / United Kingdom and Ireland / Wales / Pan-European

Albania

Andorra

Austria

Belarus

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Three electronic databases for publications to 1850

    • Identity number: KPS + database number
    • Responsible institution: the National Library of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department
    • Identity number: BCBT + database number
    • Responsible institution: Department of Historical Bibliography of the Academy of Sciences Library
    • Responsible institution: Department of Historical Bibliography of Academy of Sciences Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department of National Library of the Czech Republic, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Denmark

England

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Three electronic RB databases for books printed to 1850

    • Period covered: 1501–1600
    • Identity number: VD16 + database number
    • Responsible institution: the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) — the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books (Abteilung Handschriften und Alte Drucke)
    • Selection criteria: all materials printed and published in German-speaking countries.
  1. Electronic database: VD17
    • Period covered: 1601–1700
    • Identity number: VD17 + database number
    • Responsible institution: the Head Office of the Common Library Network (Verbundzentrale des Gemeinsamen Bibliotheksverbunds)
    • Selection criteria: all materials printed and published in the German language or in German-speaking countries.
  2. Electronic database: VD18
    • Period covered: 1701–1800
    • Identity number: VD18 + database number
    • Responsible institution: the Head Office of the Common Library Network (Verbundzentrale des Gemeinsamen Bibliotheksverbunds)
    • Selection criteria: all materials printed and published in the German language or in German-speaking countries.

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Two electronic RB databases for books printed to 1850

    • Period covered: 1534–1844
    • Identity number: abbreviated author name + publication date
    • Responsible institution: the National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn) — the department of the Icelandic National Collection
    • Selection criteria: all publications by Icelandic authors, works of foreign authors printed in Icelandic and by foreign authors in foreign languages if printed in Iceland..
  1. Electronic database: http://baekur.is/
    • Period covered: before 1870
    • Identity number: database number
    • Responsible institution: the National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn) — the department of Special Collections
    • Selection criteria: all Icelandic books published prior to 1870.

Ireland

Italy

Two electronic RB databases for books printed to 1850

  1. Electronic database: EDIT16
    • Period covered: 1501–1600
    • Identity number: CNCE + database number
    • Responsible institution: Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information (ICCU - Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni Bibliografiche) — Department for the Bibliography, Cataloguing and Survey of Early Printed Books (Area di attività per la bibliografia, la catalogazione e il censimento del libro antico)
    • Selection criteria: all works published in Italy, in any language, and works published abroad in the Italian language.
  2. Electronic database: Biblioteca italiana
    • Period covered: medieval–19th century
    • Identity number: bibit/ia/si + database number
    • Responsible institution: Sapienza University of Rome (Sapienza Università di Roma) — Department of Letters and Modern Cultures (Dipartimento di Lettere e Culture Moderne)
    • Selection criteria: works representative of the Italian cultural and literary tradition.

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Moldavia

Monaco

Montenegro

Netherlands

North Macedonia

Northern Ireland

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

San Marino

Scotland

Two electronic RB databases for books printed to 1850

1. Electronic database: https://search.nls.uk/primo-explore/search?vid=44NLS_NBS

2. Electronic database: https://nls.uk/catalogues/scottish-books-1505-1700 (Aldis online)

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom and Ireland

Wales

Pan-European

Eight electronic RB databases for books printed to 1850

    • Period covered: 1450-1830
    • Identify number: stable record id
    • Responsible institution: CERL
    • Selection criteria: early printed books produced in Europe and/or printed in a European language
    • Period covered: 1450–1650
    • Identity number: USTC + database number
    • Responsible institution: University of St Andrews
    • Selection criteria: all books published in the first age of print in any part of the world where printing with moveable type is known.
    • Period covered: 15th century
    • Identity number: ISTC + database number
    • Responsible institution: the British Library — the Department of Printed Heritage Collections
    • Selection criteria: all works printed from movable type in Europe before 1501.
  1. Electronic database: Inkunabelkatalog INKA
    • Period covered: 15th century
    • Identity number: INKA + database number
    • Responsible institution: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen — the Department of Manuscripts/Historical Prints (Handschriftenabteilung)
    • Selection criteria: all works printed from movable type in Europe before 1501 held in German and Austrian collections.
    • Period covered: 15th century
    • Identity number: GW + database number
    • Responsible institution: Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) — the subdivision Union Catalogue of Incunabula/Incunabula Collection (Referats Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke/Inkunabelsammlung)
    • Selection criteria: all works printed from movable type in Europe before 1501.
  2. Electronic database: EEB - Early European Books
    • Period covered: before 1701
    • Identity number: database number
    • Responsible institution: ProQuest
    • Selection criteria: all works printed in Europe before 1701.
  3. Electronic database: EEB GEO
    • Period covered: 1450–1700
    • Identity number: database number
    • Responsible institution: ProQuest
    • Selection criteria: all works printed in British Isles and Europe from 1450–1700, combining the databases of Early English Books Online and Early European Books.
  4. Electronic database: https://www.europeana.eu/en }|Europeana]]
    • Period covered: all periods
    • Identity number: database number
    • Responsible institution: Europeana Foundation
    • Selection criteria: digital cultural heritage of Europe.

Reading List

here we will list publications about RBs and related issues (e.g. Fingerprints)

Members of the RB Working Group

Claudia Fabian, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München
Flavia Bruni, University of Chieti-Pescara
Marieke van Delft, formerly of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague
Esther van Gelder, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague
Anette Hagan, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Andrea Jelínková and Vojtěch Šícha, Department of Historical Bibliography of the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Marian Lefferts, CERL
Adelaida Caro Martín, Biblioteca Nacional de España
Matthias Reif, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München
Peter Sjökvist, University Library Uppsala, Uppsala
Olga Tkachuk, Ossolineum Library, Wroclaw