Page 159 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes libraries. As the major instruments of education in the middle ages (300 AD–1100 AD) monasteries
served the cause by collecting, producing and preserving the books useful in the learning by the
clerics. The famous work, institutions of Cassiodorus (6th Century) was intended to serve as a
scholarly model with an annotated guide to what was valuable reading of the times. The need of
catalogue was not felt. Efforts were made later in compiling inventories. A list of books given
by Gregory the Great in the 8th century AD to the church of St. Clements (Rome) was the earliest
of the monastic library catalogues. It was a marble tablet with an introduction or prayer and a
few biblical works inscribed on it. The catalogue of the monastic library of York composed by
Alcuin in verse, which could be either a list of famous authors or a bibliography, was the next.
A third example is De Trinitate of St. Augustine, which too was a simple list of works transcribed
on the flyleaf of a work.

8.2.2 Age of Inventory (1200 A.D.–1500 A.D.)

Such simple lists were attempted in good numbers in the succeeding periods (900 A.D.–1100
A.D.). Louis Pious (814–840 A.D.) issued a decree requiring the monasteries and cathedrals to list
all the books in their possession. So the catalogues of the monasteries and cathedrals were
compiled to serve the need for inventories of the material possession. Books were arranged not
by author but by the importance of the work in the order of Bible, other religious works and
secular works. Contents were not indicated in the case of collections (works of the same author
and works of various authors on the same subject hound together, as was the practice). The old
traditions of the pre-Christian era continued.

8.2.3 Age of Finding List (1600 A.D.–1800 A.D.)

Although the inventory idea persisted, many catalogues of the 16th century such as the Catalogue
of St. Martin’s Priory of Dover, the Syon Catalogue, the Catalogue of the Bretton Monastery, etc.
contained many additional details such as content notes, names of editors, translators, etc. in the
entry and provided with author and other indexes. The 16th century proved a further productive
period influenced by great bibliographers like Gesner, Treflerus, Maunsell, to mention a yew.
Of particular significance was the contribution made by Andrew Maunsell, a bookseller and a
bibliographer in his own right, who published a bibliography of books in English. He adopted
dictionary arrangement making entries under the surnames of authors with added entries
provided under editors, subject words, etc. in a limited way. Through his procedure the concept
of main entry (to be distinguished from the added entries as the one made under author with full
bibliographic description) emerged. The idea of uniform heading also owes to him. He entered
the Bible and books of the Bible under the uniform heading of Bible.
By the close of the century, although the vestiges of the inventory catalogue still existed, the
need for uniformity and systematic approach to catalogue was clearly recognised. Full description
became evident. Author entry gained importance as the primary entry providing the basic
approach. Added entries were sought for additional approaches.

!
Caution Printed catalogue became the fashion. Efforts at standardization received new
inspiration from men like Naude, Dury, Brillet and others.
The Bodleian catalogues produced during the century marked a milestone and greatly influenced
the succeeding studies of cataloguing practice. Initially intended as shelf guides on single printed
pages with supplements to follow, a catalogue (in book form) of printed books and manuscripts
of the Bodleian library (in the typical manner of the 16th century shelf list) was printed in 1605.
Thomas Bodley and Thomas James were the principal men behind it. The last of the Bodleian

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