FOREWORD
It seems hard to believe that twenty years have gone by since a group
of dedicated individuals banded together to form the the Bibliographical
Society of the University of Virginia. It is equally hard to believe, though
we have tangible and most impressive evidence to attest it, that this is the
twentieth volume of Studies in Bibliography. It is not unusual
to be misled by the passage of time, but in this case the illusion has been
fostered by the fact that Studies sprang into being full-grown
and fully armed, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, whose thunderbolts
she wielded from time to time.
The telescoping of time is further assisted by a remarkable record of
service on the part of the Society's officers. Mr. Linton Massey has been
the Society's long-time President, Mr. John Cook Wyllie its indefatigable
Secretary/Treasurer and of course Professor Fredson Bowers has been its
Editor, albeit for the last three or four volumes even he has allowed himself
an Associate, Dr. L. A. Beaurline. Persistence is a not unfamiliar
characteristic of officials of bibliographical societies — A. W.
Pollard set
the pace with his forty years' editorship of The Library and
his
forty-one years as Secretary of the Bibliographical Society — but the
University of Virginia has in this record of service excelled all its brethren.
I am sure however that the members of the University of Virginia
Bibliographical Society would agree that the Society with the prestige it
now enjoys and the great success it has had is substantially the image of its
Editor, whose industry and monumental
achievements in analytical bibliography are the admiration of
bibliographers.
I am not a colleague of Mr. Puff, nor am I "a practioner in
panegyric," but I am sure I am right in offering congratulations to the
Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, and in acclaiming it
on behalf of its brother society in London, and of those in New York,
Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin, which are celebrated
twice yearly by the Colophon Club of London as "The Other
Bibliographical Societies," as a thriving, vigorous body, devoted to the
pursuit of scholarly objectives, as a significant publisher in the field of
bibliography, as the inspirer of young book-collectors and as the crusader
for the highest standards in printing and book-production.
That I, as immediate Past President of the Bibliographical Society,
should have been asked to introduce this twentieth volume is a compliment
which I appreciate deeply and acknowledge most warmly on behalf of the
Society and of myself as its spokesman. Professor Bowers surely drew
much of his inspiration from the work of our Society and
the pages of
The Library contain some of his earliest work
in
bibliography. I like to think that the rigidly uncompromising standards
which he has applied so successfully are in part at least the fruits of his
association with our members.
Sir Frank Francis, K.C.B.
Director and Principal Librarian of the British
Museum
The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, like the
venerable Royal Society of London, came into being because divers worthy
and inquisitive persons met to form an invisible college. This issue of
Studies in Bibliography commemorates the twentieth
anniversary
of that notable conjunction. To members of the Bibliographical Society of
the University of Virginia in the old world and Asia (of whom there are
hundreds), a 20th birthday will seem the mark of youth, and to members
in the new world (of whom there are hundreds) it is also a mark of
accomplishment and stability.
I am pleased, therefore, as President of the University which
cherishes the Society, to salute a notable institution upon its attainment of
an age that symbolizes both vitality and maturity.
The renown of Studies in Bibliography, and of the
senior
editor who has fulfilled that responsibility from the initial volume, requires
no elaboration or other encomium. As a consequence, I take this occasion
to allude to the invisibility of the supporting structure of a society which in
twenty years has published not only twenty volumes of annual
Studies but also more than twice that number of separate
bibliographical monographs. Although some of the moving spirits of this
invisible college, with their modest inclination for anonymity, conceal their
good offices, it is appropriate on an anniversary to applaud the officers and
council whose names appear on both the earliest and on the current rosters
of managers: Fredson Bowers, Joseph Carrière, Chalmers Gemmill,
Atcheson Hench, Linton Massey, Eleanor Shea, Arthur Stocker, and John
Wyllie.
This list includes bibliographers, literary critics, patrons of the arts,
a physician, a philologist, and a classical scholar. It is a pleasure also to
recognize three successive librarians of the University of Virginia —
Harry Clemons, Jack Dalton, and John Wyllie — and to commend
them
for the impetus which they have given to this learned enterprise.
To these, and to all of my fellow members of the Bibliographical
Society, I send cordial greetings, with congratulations upon a past that
bespeaks an illustrious future.
Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.
President of the University of Virginia