University of Virginia Library

An Example of 'Discriminating' and 'Matching'

The STCN fingerprint consists of a signature and the text appearing immediately above it and wholly within its width. Letters of which only a part falls within these limits are ignored. The signatures used are the first and last of separately signed preliminary, principal and postliminary matter (in so far as this is present). The formula consists of: year and format of the book, an indicator, the signature and the text above it, and punctuation between these components.

For example:

has the fingerprint:

One of the chief advantages of the STCN fingerprint in its present revised form is that it enables computer discrimination between editions even where the copies concerned are line-for-line reprints. Five editions of Vondel's Palamedes are known with the imprint: Amsterdam, A. de Wees, 1652. The title-pages all have the same text in the same typography,[7] and the books have the same collational formula and format. That is, the books are line-for-line reprints. How do we determine to which edition a particular copy belongs? The standard descriptions would be identical. The fingerprint is an economical and reliable tool to enable the cataloguer to solve this problem.

Unger's Vondel bibliography also distinguishes between these editions.[8] He usually gives a number of textual variants to discriminate between copies. However, his system is not watertight because he can make distinctions only when a second copy has already been identified as belonging to a different edition. The STCN fingerprint provides positive identification of every copy and can therefore be used for discrimination purposes from the first copy described onwards.

The STCN entry for all these copies would be:

However, calling up the description on the terminal at once reveals the differences in fingerprints:

• Unger 121:
• 165204 - b1 A2 en$b : b2 L uw
• Unger 122:
• 165204 - b1 A2 de$e : b2 L we
• Unger 123:
• 165204 - b1 A2 ade$e : b2 L e
• Unger 124:
• 165204 - b1 A2 ade : b2 L we
• Unger 125:
• 165204 - b1 A2 ade$ : b2 L $w

An overview of the relevant signatures and bottom lines appears in the Appendix.

To enable the user of the catalogue to compare any copy with the STCN entry to establish its identity, each entry has an additional note giving a textual variant peculiar to that edition. Matching, i.e. bringing together copies appearing superficially to represent other different editions, or even different texts, can be most easily accomplished by getting the computer to gather together all the identical fingerprints in a catalogue. This is something that can always be done, regardless of where the copies themselves are kept.

Under shelf-mark 447 G 65 the Royal Library in The Hague[9] has

In this case the fingerprint is: 167604 - b1 A2 ant$ : b2 L r

Such a fingerprint is a signal that one of the two is a reissue. The chance of two copies really having nothing to do with each other and yet having the same fingerprint must be regarded as so minute as to be negligible.

A useful first check, since in such cases the dates will naturally differ, is a comparison of the collational formulas. Here they are identical. The decisive factor is that the main part of the fingerprint is identical. The laws of probability together with empirical observation indicate that where two entries contain not only the same fingerprint but also the same collational formulas and formats, one of them is certain to be a reissue.

In the case of this particular text, of course, identification means that Het leven en bedrijf der monsieurs may now be attributed to Buysero. The entry in the STCN then becomes: