University of Virginia Library

Adam Clarke's Bibliographical Dictionary (1802-1806)
Francesco Cordasco

ADAM CLARKE (1762?-1832), the theologian and orientalist, is remembered for his monumental Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (8 vols., 1810-1826), and for the Arabic bible he prepared for the Foreign Bible Society.[1] His oriental studies were assumed for the scriptural studies that lay ahead, and as he progressed in his investigations he interrupted his labors between 1802-1806 for a bibliographical dictionary whose scope is best indicated by the reproduction of its cumbersome title:

The work, in eight parts, appeared in Liverpool printed by J. Nuttall for W. Baynes of London. The oriental volumes of the Dictionary were obviously suggested by Clarke's rich holdings in orientalia,[2] and his inclusion of the Latin and Greek Classics was intended to make his work complete. Guides to the Latin and Greek Classics had long been available, and Clarke took as his guide in the matter the popular work by Harwood.[3] Beyond his ever increasing collection of orientalia, Clarke must have used a small reference library which was already available for works in Coptic, Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Chaldean, Ethiopian, Arabic, Persian and Armenian languages. It is odd that he fails to mention any of these references by name, but his labors were greatly facilitated by their consultation, and in substance his Dictionary became an incorporation of the titles in these works into one alphabet with, ostensibly, additions and observations. Since Clarke does not mention these references they may well be listed: Excepting the Hebrew materials, for which Clarke found a ready store of information, his other titles for the Eastern literatures were largely drawn from the titles listed above with constant addition from his own collection. The formidibility of Clarke's Bibliographical Dictionary is indicated in the simple quantitative comparison of its 25,000 odd titles with the aggregate 6000 (including Harwood) titles of his sources. Patently, this was an achievement, and Clarke with some modesty noted that his "chief aim has been to insert useful and important articles, together with whatever he knew to be curious and scarce" (Advertisement). He was quick to add that "those who have the smallest acquaintance with the difficulty of compiling such a work as the present, will not be surprised to meet with several mistakes, and will not be hasty in censuring." (idem).

The Bibliographical Dictionary, itself, is in one author alphabet, and the usual entry includes anecdotes of the author (sometimes with source), notices of the best edition (s) of the works and, if available to Clarke, price of editions and recent auction sale records. Occasionally the author-alphabet is broken for the alphabetical inclusion of series of volumes (e.g. the Aldine Classics), or for a collective heading e.g. "Bible." This was recommended, and some of these collective entries achieve an amazing length and quality. The collective entry "Bible" occupies pp. 185-288 in volume I, and is continued in an appendix of 15 pp. (II, 1-15). The fullness of Clarke's references remain unmatched. Neither Watt in his Bibliotheca Britannica (4vs. Edinburgh, 1824) nor Lowndes in the Bibliographer's Manual (10vs. rev. Bohn, 1858-64) under their listing for "Bible" even approach Clarke's entry. Yet both Watt and Lowndes had used Clarke as a source. Within the area that it has defined (and its title is the best guide to this area) the Bibliographical Dictionary is unrivalled. Take for further illustration the entry for Cicero (II, 187-235). The logical point of comparison would be Harwood, but it is deficient alongside Clarke. Perhaps T. F. Dibdin's An Introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin Classics (Gloucester, 1802), which went through four editions, the last in 1827, might be adjudged, but it too does not equal the wealth of information found under Clarke's "Cicero," and at times Clarke even exceeds the expectation, as for example his quotation of the complete colophon for the Vindelin de Spira edition of the Ciceronian Epistolae (folio 1471):

And this magnificent bibliographical survey of Cicero is followed by several pages of biographical matter in which Clarke quotes Quintilian, Bayle, and Dr. Blair on the merits of the orator's study.

Clarke reserved the 7th and 8th parts of his Bibliographical Dictionary for a Bibliographical Miscellany which contains an invaluable "Catalogue of Authors and their Works on Bibliography and Typography divided into four Classes".[4] Here, in the absence of a history of bibliography, is an important working tool which the modern bibliographer can use as the grundriss for 17th- and 18th-century bibliographical history. The entries once again are in an author-alphabet, with occasional interruption, and the calendar of names is, in effect, a history. With the retention of Clarke's four classifications these names are subjoined:

LITERARY AND CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY

• Giovanni Andres, Robertus Bellarminus, Gulielmus Cave, Jo. Augustinus Ernestus, Jo. Albertus Fabricius, Gottlieb Christ. Harles, P. Jacobus Le Long, Andreas Gottlieb Masch, Jo. Gothofr. Olearius, Casimirius Oudinus, Christophorus Saxius, Girolamo Tiraboschi.

ANNALS OF TYPOGRAPHY, GENERAL AND PARTICULAR

• P. Ireneo Affo, P. Jo. Bapt. Audifredi, Girolamo Baruffaldi, Michael Denis, Franciscus Kaverius Laire, Michael Maittaire, Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi, Georgius Wolfganus Panzer, Angelus Maria Card. Quirini, Jo. Ger. Schelhornius, Joannes Bern. de Rossi, March. Giacomo Sardini, Joseph Ant. Saxius, Joseph Vernazza, Leopoldo Camillo Volta, Stephanus Alexander Wurdtwein.

GENERAL AND PARTICULAR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUES

• Angelus M. Bandinius, Cornelius Beughem, Mauro Boni, Bartholommeo Gamba, Placidus Braun, Guillaume Francois De Bure, Cailleau, David Clement, Pierre Antoine Crevenna, T. F. Dibdin, Joannis Vogt, Jo. Matthaeus Frankius, Edward Harwood, Wilhelm Heinsius, Francois de los Rios, Jacobus Morellius, J. B. L. Osmont, Renouard, Niclaus Rossius, Sebastianus Seemiller, Joseph Smith, D. Gaetano Volpi.

CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS ON ANCIENT TYPOGRAPHY

• Joseph Ames, William Herbert, Bowyer, M. de Boze, S. Gottlieb Breitkopf, Camus, Juan de la Caille, André, Chevillier, François Ignace Fournier, Baron d'Heinecken, Lambinet, Bernardus Mallinckrot, Prosper Marchand, Gherardus Meermanus, Mercier, Joannes Benedictus Mittarelli, Giacomo Maria Partoni, G. Peignot, Christ. Gottlieb Schwartz, Daniel Schoepelinus, Christianus Wolfius, Francesco Antonio Zaccaria.

Under each of these names Clarke lists the important work and then makes some critical judgment. In many cases by immediate reference to works that he has cited he is able to illustrate the importance of the work under consideration in the history of bibliography. Actually, this "Catalogue of Authors and their Works on Bibliography" is his general working reference-library for the problems that arose in the compilation of the Bibliographical Dictionary. In the Advertisment to the first volume of the Dictionary most of them are named.

When Adam Clarke turned away from his completed bibliographical labors in 1806, he turned away with some reluctance. It is interesting to see that his Memoirs of the Wesley Family (1823) was more concerned with the bibliography of Methodism than with the history of enthusiastic piety.

Notes