PRELIMINARY. V 5. The collation of each book will be given; that is, such a description as will indicate a perfect copy. 6. The market value of the books, with the prices at which they have been fold at public sales, will, whenever possible, be given. 7. Different editions and various translations of the principal works will be diligently compared with each other, and their variations and relative merits pointed out, especially of fuch works as the Collections of Voyages and Travels by De Bry, Hulfius, Ramusius, Hakluyt, Purchas, Thevenot, etc.; the corresponding parts of which will be compared, not only with each other, but with the editions of the works from which they were translated, abridged, or reprinted. 8. Bibliographical Notes will be appended when deemed necessary, containing abstracts of the contents of the works. when the titles fail to give a proper idea of them; anecdotes of authors, printers, engravers, etc.; important items of historical and geographical information; notices of peculiarities of copies, as large paper, vellum, cancelled leaves, etc.; the number of copies printed; together with the comparative rarity and intrinsic value of the works. 9. The notes upon the books printed in America will comprise a full history of the origin and progress of printing in North and South America, from the year 1543 to 1789. 10. Under the title of every work will be designated one or more libraries in which it may be found. II. The titles will be arranged alphabetically, under the names of the authors, or the leading word of the title. 12. The work will contain a full Introductory Memoir upon the materials of early American History, together with an account of the principal collections of them which have been made in Europe and America. 13. Three Indexes to the contents of the work will be vi PRELIMINARY. given, viz. (1) A chronological index, in which the titles will be arranged according to the years in which the works were printed; (2) An index of the fubjects treated in the books; (3) An alphabetical index of the persons and subjects mentioned in the Notes and Introductory Memoir. 14. When the manuscript of the work shall have been completed, according to the plan detailed above, it is to be delivered to the Secretary of the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, at Washington, who will in accordance with the Rules of the Institution as published in the Programme of Organization, of Dec. 8, 1847, Submit it to a commission of competent judges. If this commission report favourably as to the faithful execution of the work, it is to be published and distributed at the fole expense of the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, constituting two or more volumes of the quarto feries of SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE. Now, I have advanced sufficiently far in the Bibliographia Americana to know that it is perfectly impossible to prepare the copy with sufficient accuracy to print from at a time and place when and where the rare books described cannot be referred to. It has therefore been found necessary to make a preliminary issue of the more difficult parts by throwing into type the titles of each work in full, correcting the proofs from the books themselves as they pass through my hands, or are found in the library of the British Museum or elsewhere. By this means I shall not only 'book' materials for the Bibliographia as I meet with them, but shall be enabled to receive the kind co-operation of librarians and bibliographers in the examination and collation of rare books relating to America. The materials thus collected, it is proposed to re-arrange and elaborate according to the plan detailed above for the Smithsonian Institution. To avoid confusion this preliminary work will PRELIMINARY. vii be considered as privately printed, and be issued to subscribers only, in the form of a monthly periodical, under the title of STEVENS'S AMERICAN BIBLIOGRAPHER. Brief collations of each book will be given, with occasional notes, illustrations, etc.; but desiring to interfere as little as possible with the Bibliographia Americana, nothing will be printed in this which can as well be printed for the first time in the larger work. Although no expense or pains will be spared to secure accuracy in this preliminary issue, yet I deem it expedient to print only one hundred copies,limiting the whole number of Subscribers to seventy-five, and hope I may be fortunate enough to secure those among librarians and bibliographers, twenty-five in Europe and fifty in America, who will be kind enough to point out to me fuch inaccuracies and variations as they may detect in comparing my titles and obfervations with their own. The American Bibliographer will be published in monthly numbers, each containing at least forty-eight pages; but as the work progresses, if it be found possible to proceed faster, extra numbers will be printed from time to time, each of which will be complete in itself, and be devoted to one particular subject, as, for instance, the Jefuit Relations, De Bry, Hulfius, etc. The American Bibliographer will be continued So long as materials for it can be found, probably two or three years. Morley's Hotel, London, Jan. 1854. HENRY STEVENS, F. S. A. of Vermont. ABINGDON (Earl of). Thoughts on the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq; to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America. By the Earl of Abingdon. The Fourth Edition. [Motto] Oxford, Printed for W. Jackson: Sold by J. Almon, in Piccadilly, and J. Bew, in Paternoster-Row, London; and by the Bookfellers of Bristol, Bath, and Cambridge. [Price One Shilling.] 68 pp. 8vo. ACCOUNT (An) of the Customs and Manners of the Micmakis and Maricheets Savage Nations, now dependent on the Government of Cape-Breton, from an original French Manufcript-Letter, never published, written by a French Abbot, who refided many years, in quality of Missionary, amongst them. To which are annexed, Several Pieces, relative to the Savages, to Nova-Scotia, and to North-America in general. London: Printed for S. Hooper and A. Morley at Gay's-Head, near Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand. MDCCLVIII. Half-title, title, viii+138 pp. 8vo. ACCOUNT (An) of the Loss of His Majesty's Ship Deal Castle, commanded by Capt. James Hawkins, off the Island of Porto Rico, during the Hurricane in the WestIndies, in the Year 1780. London: Printed for J. Murray, No. 32, Fleet-Street. MDCC LXXXVII. 3 prelim. ll. and 48 pp. 8vo. |