Curiosities of the Catalogue

[Karen Reeds]

When my husband was looking at a book by the great 17th century
Jesuit polymath and weirdo, Athanasius Kircher, at Linda Hall
Library, Kansas City, he disturbed the peace of the rare book room by
laughing out loud when he saw who used to own it. Kircher's 1675
treatise on Noah's Ark bore the bookplate of the Royal Institution of
Naval Architects--with a very low shelfmark number. The librarian was
equally amused.

In my publishing days, I once put out an excellent book on epidemics
in New York City. For a main title, we used a quote from a 19th C
public health report that described the tenements as Hives of
Sickness. The LC cataloguing in publication classification put it in
dermatology.

Karen

[Perry Willett]

I suppose this is more about classification than catalogue entries, but the
examples with the Bible reminds me how amusing it is (at least for me) that
the Bible has an LC classification of BS. Somebody with a sense of humor
decided that one.

Perry Willett
Head, Digital Library Production Service
300 Hatcher North
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1205
Ph: 734-764-8074
Fax: [phone]
Email: ***@umich.edu

[Marshall, Joseph]

We librarians have, or used to have, an obsession with identifying authors. My colleague Keith Skakle found an amusing example while re-cataloguing some chapbooks. The title of one collection of songs is 'George and Britain save: to which are added, The plowman's ditty; Lay thy loof in mine, lassie; By Logan Streams.' (Stirling, 1825)

This was catalogued with the author headings 'George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820. [Appendix.]' and, absurdly, 'Streams, Logan'.

Joe

Dr. Joseph Marshall
Rare Book Collections
National Library of Scotland
http://www.nls.uk/collections/rarebooks/index.html

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[D***@AOL.COM]

Likewise an unidentified auctioneer is said to have offered

123. Mill on the Floss
124. ditto, on Liberty

(If this is actually true, I'd love to see it.)

I suppose the genre, such as it is, might be called catalogue malapropism.
Or simply, "eBay".



Jay Dillon
_Jay Dillon Rare Books + Manuscripts, LLC_ (http://www.jaydillon.com/)








In a message dated 2006-08-17 10:52:56 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
***@NLS.UK writes:

We librarians have, or used to have, an obsession with identifying authors.
My colleague Keith Skakle found an amusing example while re-cataloguing some
chapbooks. The title of one collection of songs is 'George and Britain
save: to which are added, The plowman's ditty; Lay thy loof in mine, lassie; By
Logan Streams.' (Stirling, 1825)

This was catalogued with the author headings 'George III, King of Great
Britain, 1738-1820. [Appendix.]' and, absurdly, 'Streams, Logan'.

[john mcvey]

Post by D***@AOL.COM
123. Mill on the Floss
124. ditto, on Liberty
I suppose the genre, such as it is, might be called catalogue malapropism.

Good term.
But think of the bargains that catalogue malapropism can occasionally
afford, for those who exploit it in their searches !

John McVey
Montserrat College of Art
Beverly Massachusetts