Gelehrten-lexicon_, in which, says the title page, "the
learned men of all classes who have lived from the beginning of the world
up to the present time, are described." This book, with its supplement,
by Adelung and Rotermund, (completed only to letter R), makes ten
ponderous quarto volumes, and may fairly be styled a thesaurus of the
birth and death of ancient scholars and their works. It is still largely
used in great libraries, to identify the period and the full names of
many obscure writers of books, who are not commemorated in the catalogues
of universal bibliography, compiled on a more restrictive plan.

We come now to the notable catalogues of early-printed books, which aim
to cover all the issues of the press from the first invention of
printing, up to a certain period. One of the most carefully edited and
most readily useful of these is Hain, (L.) _Repertorium Bibliographicum_,
in four small and portable octavo volumes, published at Stuttgart in
1826-38. This gives, in an alphabet of authors, all the publications
found printed (with their variations and new editions), from A. D. 1450
to A. D. 1500.

More extensive is the great catalogue of G. W. Panzer, entitled _Annales
Typographici_, in eleven quarto volumes, published at Nuremberg from 1793
to 1803. This work, which covers the period from 1457 (the period of the
first book ever printed with a date) up to A. D. 1536, is not arranged
alphabetically (as in Hain's Repertorium) by the names of authors, but in
the order of the cities or places where the books catalogued were
printed. The bibliography thus brings together in one view, the
typographical product of each city or town for about eighty years after
the earliest dated issues of the press, arranged in chronological order
of the years when printed. This system has undeniable advantages, but
equally obvious defects, which are sought to be remedied by many copious
indexes of authors and printers.

Next in importance comes M. Maittaire's _Annales Typographici, ab artis
inventae origine ad annum 1664_, printed at The Hague (Hagae Comitum) and
completed at London, from 1722-89, in eleven volumes, quarto, often bound
in five volumes. There is besides, devoted to the early printed
literature of the world, the useful three volume bibliography by La Serna
de Santander, published at Brussels in 1805, entitled _Dictionnaire
bibliographique choisie du quinzieme siecle_, Bruxelles, 1803, embracing
a selection of wh