Cyclopaedia Bibliographica: A LIBRARY MANUAL OF THEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL LITERATURE, AND GUIDE TO BOOKS FOR AUTHORS, PREACHERS, STUDENTS, AND LITERARY MEN. ANALYTICAL, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, AND BIOGRAPHICAL. BY JAMES DARLING. Vol. 1 LONDON: JAMES DARLING, 81 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. NEW YORK: J. W. BOUTON & CO., 87 WALKER STREET. 1854. PREFACE. T HE want of an extenfive and well-digefted bibliographical work on Theology and kindred subjects has long been felt as a great inconvenience both by authors and readers. Owing to this deficiency in our literature, authors are deprived of much affiftance which they would otherwife obtain in perfecting their works, and readers have often to be content with fuperficial books when fuch a guide would at once direct them to the best sources of information. In the "Cyclopædia Bibliographica" an attempt is made to fupply this defideratum. It is formed on a plan calculated to make known the productions of former ages, as well as those of the present time, in the easiest as well as the most exact manner, the result of many years' study of the best bibliographical fyftems and of the wants of literary men. Many errors have been introduced into bibliographical works, owing to their being compiled from fecond-hand fources, and not from an actual inspection of the books described. The greater part of the present work is the result of a careful inspection, often leaf by leaf, of the books contained in the Metropolitan Library, founded by the compiler in January 1840, in order to supply a want greatly felt for an institution, where, for a small annual fubfcription, members could obtain at their own refidences the ufe of books of a superior order, ancient as well as modern, especially in Theology, and in the various languages,-an inftitution which continues to be of effential use in promoting the study of facred literature. The object for which the Library was formed, and the Cyclopædia Bibliographica" published, is the fame; the books which are requifite for the one are exactly those which ought to be described in the other. It is, therefore, claimed as a peculiar advantage of the present work, that it is founded on an existing library, and thus poffeffes every security for correctness; while it is not fo peculiarly so, but that other books, not yet in the Library, are added, in order that it may have that completeness which may render it a useful guide in all libraries. Such additions are distinguished by an afterisk at the end of the date or title, or by their being placed in the form of notes as " Other works." For these the fame degree of accuracy is not claimed, although, in general, they are given from a careful inspection of copies in other libraries. b |